Today we’d like to introduce you to Emilio Héctor Rodríguez.
Emilio Héctor, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in the colonial village of Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, in 1950. My family moved to Havana before I reached the age of three. My encounter with art was in my early childhood, when I visited different museums in Havana and other cities in Cuba. Since my early childhood I exhibited a precocious talent for painting and drawing. I started drawing and experimenting with oil paint and tempera at the age of 12. I began studying classical guitar at 18 and did so for 3 years. While a student at the Instituto Pre-Universitario de Marianao (Marianao Senior High School), I participated in several workshops sponsored by San Alejandro Arts Academy. Between 1969 and 1970 I worked under the guidance of Cuban painter Jesús Antonio Valdovino Diaz at a center for the visual arts run by Consejo Nacional de Cultura (National Council of Culture) located in El Vedado, La Habana. In 1971 I enrolled in the University of Havana to study Pure Mathematics, but after two years I changed the field to Computer Science, obtaining my degree in 1976. After graduation I worked as a software specialist. In 1978 I began signing my artworks as “Emilio Héctor”. I left Cuba permanently in 1981 and spent one year living in Paris where I had the opportunity to be in contact with art at large. I moved to Miami, Florida, in 1982, where I currently reside with my family. Upon arrival in Miami, I completed a series of drawings and started working as a computer analyst/programmer. I began painting with acrylic guided by the experienced Cuban painter Dominica Alcántara in 2005 at the “Latin Quarter Cultural Center” in Miami. Abstract painting became my last interest and passion. I have been painting abstracts since 2007. In the present I am very dedicated to my art. I has been participating in the workshops of renowned Cuban-American painters and professors Baruj Salinas and Yovani Bauta at Miami Dade College between 2008 and 2011. My works can be found in private and public collections in Florida as well as in other states and countries of South America Europe and Asia.
In 2010 I presented a group of abstract artists to commemorate a Century since the first abstract artwork by Wassily Kandisnsky. This presentation later continued to become the “7 Plus One Art Project” which has been presenting abstract art exhibitions in diverse institutions such as Miami Dade College, the Koubek Center, the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, Coral Gables Museum and Saint Thomas University among others. Internationally the project has been presented in Panamá, Costa Rica and Spain. Actually, I am conducting this project as its founder and artistic director.
In 2014 they invited me to become a member of The Cuban American Phototheque Foundation in recognition of my work in the field of photography.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
To me it has been a career I have combined with my other career as Computer System Analyst/Programmer. Both careers have been two different vocations in my life.
Being a painter, whose professional expertise is in the fields of Mathematics and Cybernetics is not a common profile. But it is my case indeed. This gives me an unusual perspective when I am proposing and defining my work. My interpretation of the environment is deeply affected by the criteria shaped by my formal education. Abstract art allows me to take a deep look and experiment inside any existing reality. It is not only a tool I use to look under the skin of a creature or under the surface of an object, but it is also a path to look above them all. Abstract art, for me, is not just a simple instrument to describe what is hidden by the boundaries of life and by the matter surrounding me, but it allows me to recreate those boundaries, through imagination, beyond the limits of my sight and thoughts. My paintings represent the vertex where Mathematics, spirituality and arts converge forever to satisfy my inner longing to integrate my ideas with colors and shapes. My art is only an example of the myriad of gifts which I receive from God every day. This experience is a blessing, a fundamental and legitimate part of my relationship with God.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a visual artist. I do painting and fine art photography. Since 2007 I am concentrated in abstract art and have been creating artworks where I combined abstraction with photography. It is a very interesting combination that I enjoy a lot. Although I was formed academically in the area of Mathematics and Cybernetic, when I say to my friends that I am a Mathematician-Programmer-Artist, my friends correct me and say no, you are an Artist-Programmer-Mathematician,
What am I most proud of? My faith, my family and my work,
I don’t feel apart from others, I and others always connect as a complementary team.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
For those who are just starting out my advice is: Be loyal to yourself always. Be a genuine creator. Don’t please others but yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.emilio-hector.com
- Instagram: @emiliohectorrodriguez
- Facebook: Emilio Hector Contemporary Art
- LinkedIn: Emilio Héctor Rodríguez
- Twitter: @ehr0926art
- Youtube: Emilio HéctorR odriguez
Image Credits
1- The Annunciation
2- The Beatitudes 5:9
3- Ecclesiates 1:4
4- Genesis I
5- Earth (The Ocean)
6- Olivia
7- Ecclesiastes 7-20
8- Elegy to Decadence
