El Mac

Born in Los Angeles to an engineer and an artist, El Mac (or The Mac) has been creating and studying art independently since childhood.

“I’ve basically been studying classic art since I was a little kid. There’s always more to learn, more to discover. I never went to art school so I don’t see it as some kind of academic pursuit, it’s almost more of a religion. There’s just been so much great art made throughout history. I can only hope that maybe someday when I’m long since buried and forgotten some kid will take the effort to discover some of my work and be inspired by it.”

Drawing inspiration from the surrounding Mexican & Chicano culture of the American Southwest, religious art, pin-up art, graffiti, and a wide range of classic artists including Caravaggio, Mucha, and Vermeer, he began painting with acrylics as well as painting graffiti in the early 90s. He has since worked consistently towards mastering his saturated portrait style. Around 1998 he also began to paint technicolor aerosol interpretations of classic paintings by old European masters. This led to being commissioned in 2003 by the Groeninge Museum in Brugge, Belgium to paint his interpretations of classic Flemish Primitive paintings in the museum’s collection. He has since been commissioned to paint murals across the US, as well as in Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands and France.

A few of his murals have become mini-landmarks, especially his recent collaborations with Retna, and have been featured in a number of music videos and publications. His work was featured on the cover of LA Weekly in 2007 for a cover story about the Seventh Letter artist collective of which he is a member. For the last few years he has been focused on creating murals, painting photorealistic canvases, creating stained glass pieces, and evolving his unique brushwork style.

He lives and works in downtown Phoenix, in an old house filled with records, books and art.

Lots of pictues today- I really love this mans work.