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Jose Parla Biography

Author

Jose Parla, born in 1973, is a mysterious artist whose works blend street art with contemporary art, characterized by unique style and imagination.

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“The walls around us bear witness to lives past and present.”

Past Wall Bears Witness Past And Present

Author:Jose Parla

“For me, the canvas is an abstract interpretation of a wall. It's a piece of art with its own history, one that alludes to the passage of time and to the theater of life.”

Art Pieces Wall Theater Abstract Interpretation Passages Canvas Passage Of Time

Author:Jose Parla

“Sometimes I'm inspired by a certain part of my life - I'm thinking about a place and I'll mix the colors from memory.”

Thinking Sometimes Certain Memories Color Inspired

Author:Jose Parla

“When I was young I was constantly reading walls; I took in everything written on walls, from love messages to political messages. It was my hobby and became my art.”

Art Young Political Reading Written Wall Messages Hobbies

Author:Jose Parla

“One teacher told me that my work belonged in the trash. That day I ran out of the classroom and ended up in the library, where there happened to be a black and white photography exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg's photographs of the streets of New York. The subject of his photos were exactly what I was painting about.”

Black White Teacher Happened Streets Subjects New York Painting Photography Library Photograph Ran Classroom Black And White Trash Exhibitions Black And White Photography

Author:Jose Parla

“I never want to abandon my roots. I want to give my past and the history of painting the importance it deserves, including the masters like Rembrandt, who built up the surface of the canvas with transparent layers.”

Want Giving Past Painting Masters Deserve Built Roots Importance Including Surface Abandon Layers Canvas Transparent My Past

Author:Jose Parla

“My work is an exploration of the self. I've always been concerned with how I'm living and how that reflects in the painting.”

Self Painting Concerned Exploration

Author:Jose Parla

“You try to tap into a memory and you close your eyes and it comes back. So I was doing this in the painting and then that became a practice of mine. Sometimes it was a cathartic situation, a way to meditate.”

Way Trying Sometimes Eye Memories Situation Practice Mines Painting Cathartic

Author:Jose Parla

“My style also has a lot to do with theater because often I'm imagining I'm a character who is wandering by a wall and leaves a mark. Then I'm someone else, who 10 days later leaves another mark. Someone was angry and did this, and then someone came and painted over it, and then the sun bleached it out and the weather exposed it again.”

Character Sun Style Wall Mark Theater Angry Weather Wander Over It Exposed

Author:Jose Parla

“I have too much energy, even for myself. I'm lucky to have something that focuses me.”

Energy Too Much Lucky

Author:Jose Parla

“If I'm going through something, I paint through it. It's very physical. I'm writing, I'm thinking, I'm meditating, I'm moving, I'm jumping off ladders, and it's therapeutic.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Moving Paint Jumping Ladders Meditating Therapeutic Jumping Off

Author:Jose Parla

“Sometimes I'm not so sure how healthy it is because it's exhausting to put all your emotion into your work, but I guess I should be thankful for that. I don't want the work to be about anything else but the truth and honesty.”

Want Should Sometimes Emotion Honesty Healthy Being Thankful Exhausting Truth And Honesty

Author:Jose Parla

“As a young kid I was in love with breakdancing. I practiced the uprock style, which is a battle style of dance that looks like fighting. It comes from the gangs in New York in the 1960s and '70s. It's beautiful, almost like a martial art, and it can be funny, too, because you make fun of each other.”

Looks Art Kids Beautiful Young Fighting Fun Style New York Battle Martial Arts Gang 1960s Breakdancing

Author:Jose Parla

“People have thought that some of my writing and lines are done by a machine. I'm able to move in a way that's part gestural dance performance, and it's fun for me, so I incorporate that into the painting.”

People Way Writing Done Able Moving Fun Lines Painting Machines Performances Dance Performance

Author:Jose Parla

“Sometimes I think I shouldn't explain much about my work because people will just feel what they feel when they see it. They'll love it or hate it or enjoy it on their own, like how I've looked at abstract paintings of other artists and cried or felt happy because I've felt, "Wow, I've lived that, I've understood that."”

People Thinking Feels Sometimes Artist Hate Felt Enjoy Painting Understood Abstract Wow Cried Abstract Painting

Author:Jose Parla

“I think artists should define themselves. They should speak about their work and how it relates to society and what's going on in the world.”

Thinking World Should Artist Speak Relate

Author:Jose Parla

About the Author

Born: 1973
Known for: Author
Quotes: 16

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