For his recent installation, Wake and Wonder, Texas-based artist Adrian Esparza created impressive illusions of depth with strong lines organized into this detailed arrangement. He began with a sarape, a Mexican blanket, and unraveled it into a large pile of string. Then, using just a hammer, nails, and thread, the Mexican-American artist blended the muted colors together into a dynamic, visually intriguing geometric formation. The 12×30 foot installation was a commission for the Prez Art Museum in Miami.
Esparza started out as a painter and was first influenced by still life and landscape art of the Dutch masters. As he developed, his interests changed and expanded, but his explorations always continued to draw upon the classic approach. He saw strong painterly qualities within the sarape, which represents the culture that Esparza grew up with in El Paso, Texas. By using that culturally symbolic object, destroying it, and then reinventing it, he feels that he is raising an awareness of how art truly exists all around us every day.
