Chicago artist sincere about using art to transform life

BY TIM SHELLBERG

Times Correspondent | Thursday, January 22, 2009 | No comments posted.

The 54 pieces in Chicago artist Martin Garcia's exhibit, "MartinJon: Getting Back Up Again," are thought of by its creator as collaborative works.

While the paintings that make up the exhibit were created solely by Garcia, he reached to the Internet, soliciting titles for his pieces from viewers after they viewed the works on the social networking Web site flickr.com.

"I wanted people to look at these, have a reaction to them and to be able to put their name on something," he said.

"I wanted these to be something that they can consider they helped to create, because they're helping to drive an idea with the paintings."

Running at Highland's Uncle Freddy's Gallery through Feb. 7, Garcia, who was reared in Chicago and lives in its Pilsen neighborhood, studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago.

His paintings have been on display at acclaimed Windy City venues such as the Bill L. Parks Gallery at the American Academy of Art, Oskar Friedel Gallery and Mars Gallery.

Along with exhibiting his creations in traditional venues, Garcia also actively turns to the Web to bring his art to a larger audience and support other artists as well.

Garcia posts "ChicagoArts," a weekly program on YouTube where he interviews artists throughout Chicagoland. He also partners with fellow Windy City artist Dan Findley in "Two Guys and a Guest," a live show that runs every Saturday on the Web site ustream.tv.

"My goal is to improve the quality of life through art," Garcia said of his Web productions.

"What I would hope to accomplish is to create a new definition of what art is and how art can interact with people in their lives."

Garcia created the majority of the paintings on display in "MartinJon" over the last two months, with the oldest works dating as far back as 2006. The new works, he said, represent a shift in theme and mood.

"(My work in the past) tended to be dark, and I did have some sort of romanticism as an artist toward the darker end of the arts," he said.

"I'm not painting puppy dogs now -- but there's the romanticism about the melancholy artist and the depression that I'm trying to shed."