Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonlouis Gonzalez and Yezenia Garcia.
Jonlouis and Yezenia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Jonlouis grew up in Melbourne, Florida watching rocket launches as a child fueled with curiosity. In 2014, Jonlouis began his professional art career and it was not long before he became a young renowned artist at only 25 years of age. His collect-ability and investment amount continue to rise yearly. Moreover, his talent has proven itself through doing solo shows in New York at NYA Gallery in Tribeca, Miami’s Design District with brands such as Hublot Galerie and Tag Heuer as well as recently taking on art projects with Saks Fifth Avenue curating window displays in Miami’s Brickell City Centre. Notably, Jonlouis’s work has been seen in acclaimed Television shows with VH1 such as “Love and Hip Hop Miami”.
Jonlouis career continues to thrive through the donation of pieces for multiple notable charities including The Constellation Foundation, who focuses on spreading space awareness through real astronaut experiences expressed through art, The Human Rights Campaign and The Buzz Aldrin Foundation founded by the second man to touch down on the moon- which works for funding towards establishing our future generation in space. Congress Woman Frederica Wilson also invited Jonlouis to give a speech for the Miami Dade Children’s Court House on Creativity. Up to date, his Astronaut collection became a signature series in the space community, so much so, it caught the eye of former Astronaut Nicole Stott who brought Jonlouis to exhibit his work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the Apollo 8th 50th Anniversary of “Earthrise” Which celebrates the very first image taken of the Earth from space. This opportunity brought Jonlouis back to the same place he admired rockets launch from as a child. His Paintings illustrate an Astronaut with a bouquet of flowers representing bringing life/love into a hopeless space or the unknown; pushing the aspect of discovery, curiosity, and faith to humanity. Jonlouis believes in creating artwork from emotions and experiences that shake the world, using art as a medium to channel his voice and message to society in order to keep the world fueled and inspired to keep crossing boundaries. Jonlouis’s work is an illustration of internally driven courage to be creative, but most importantly courage to make a real change.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When it comes to being a creative and growing career, there will always be bumps in the road. The key is you have to stay focused and really boil down to what you want to do with that talent- that is how you formulate a “passion” it’s the outcome of what you do. It’s never about funds. We want to create an impact. Definitely, my hardest times were when I was running the business by myself, I couldn’t seem to brake myself into two. Business and Art are two different parts of the brain that don’t always work in conjunction. For a moment, I got sucked into painting what I knew I could sell and it was harming my creative flow to venture out and create from my soul. Plus, running a business never left me enough time to paint like I wanted to (all day).
It wasn’t until I met my soulmate and current manager Yezenia Garcia. She’s basically the left side of the brain and I just focus on creating. She also does my marketing, website developing, etc. She wears a lot of hats in the business. Like all entrepreneurs, we encounter struggles every day but once you find someone with a similar vision, it is all a matter of perspective– we just handle them as opportunities to improve.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Jonlouis Art Studios Miami – what should we know?
We really focus on substance. We seek to involve ourselves in things that we know will give back and will have a counter effect in our world, we have been working with a lot of foundations and organizations that we really admire and have had the opportunity to really do amazing things with. I am really honored to say that I am NASA’s youngest represented Artist, it’s truly fascinating to think that I was able to reach and inspire the space community including former Astronauts with my art.
Currently, something we are really thrilled about is working with Nicole Stott, a former astronaut that spent 143 days in space- she’s known as the “Artistic Astronaut” and was the first person to paint in space. She currently runs a foundation called SPACE|ART foundation where she travels worldwide and paints with children in refugee camps. She has them paint on a piece of cloth and collects them all to later sow them into an Astronaut suit that she flies into space. She sends those images of the astronaut in orbit in the suit to the children to show them that their dreams can go as far as they wish. Truly one of the most amazing things. We are arranging to have an event with her and her Foundation on September 19th of this year in R House Wynwood where we will auction off Space Art for her foundation and have former Astronauts engage with our guests on space awarenesses and education. I am thrilled to have this event come together soon and will keep you guys in the loop.
What’s your outlook for the industry over the next 5-10 years?
Space. Literally.
We work so hard every day to use my art as a tool to change the world and inspire. It is such a great honor and responsibility to be able to move or touch someone with a piece of art. In the near future, we plan on opening a traveling museum. “The Museum of Substance” where we plan on introducing the many things in this world that we consider is a big part of our culture and have substance, anything from art, music, experiences, you name it. It is a big project but we are certain it is something we want to do. There are many things in this planet that are worth shining a spotlight on and we think due to social media and many other things of this century “substance” are getting watered down. We are here to remind people about what is important.
Contact Info:
- Address: R HOUSE WYNWOOD
2727 NW 2nd Ave.
33136, Miami, Florida - Website: https://www.jonlouisstudios.com/
- Phone: 3219870761
- Email: info@jonlouisstudios.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonlouis.art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonLouis/
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