Eduardo Delacruz

Your work blends influences from tattoo art, lowrider culture, and fine art painting. How do you balance these worlds while maintaining your own artistic identity?

I look at tattoos and lowrider culture as fine art. The human body and a car, are just canvases that move. So my artistic identity comes from how I do my shading, how I’m not afraid to go deep with my darks and shadows. How I build depth and realism with thin layers of color. I also take traditional elements from both cultures and add them to my work. For instance, there may be an area in my piece that may need more weight, so I can add some roses or filigree, both of which are prominent images in both tattoos and Lowriding. Or do a deep dark background to get a better depth of field, which a lot of photorealistic tattoo artist do to add depth and separation between images. So my work blends many elements from both art forms, color, composition and depth that allows me to stand out among other artists.

You mentioned that symbolism and storytelling are central to your work. What kinds of stories or emotions are you most interested in expressing through your art?

In my most recent work, the stories I’m aiming to tell are of myself. Different elements of who I am or the emotions that make me— sadness, overworked, multitasking, rebuilding. When it comes to client work, I try to take the piece they want done and add as many elements of them into it. Their culture, heritage, religion, interests, family, anything that connects their real story with the story of the artwork. This gives my artwork a unique perspective tailored to the client or myself, depending if its a commission or not. With my piece “Silent Wisdom” the emotions in that painting are rebirth, lighting my own path and braking out from behind the shadows of the main stream artists that I have painted for. In “Silent Wisdom” an important part of telling my story of rebirth, the only bit of color is the flames. This symbolizes light down the path to solo success in the Fine art industry.

Having worked professionally with airbrushing for more than 20 years, how has your relationship with the medium evolved over time?

Over the last few years I have seen that airbrushing has a place in more than just the automotive industry. Early in my career I was very naive and thought airbrushing was just for custom painting cars and motorcycles. But as I have grown and matured in my craft I’ve realized that automotive industry is just a small area where the airbrush can perform. So once I was able to realize that I was able to learn and grow more as an airbrush artist. I was able to learn and use different techniques in my work that are used in other industries, like how skin texture is done in the FX industry, or drop shadows in sign painting. By having an open mind and seeing the wide uses of an airbrush, I have been able to make my work more unique in a saturated market.

Eduardo Delacruz | Silent Wisdom

Artists such as Mister Cartoon and Carlos Torres have influenced your artistic language. What specific elements of their work resonate with you the most?

Mister Cartoon for me, was the first artist I saw in a magazine that looked like me. When I discovered him and his artwork I was in my late teens. It made me realize that a Latin kid like myself, who grew up in the neighborhood I did, could make it into a magazine and make something of himself. Then I started seeing the murals he was doing not only on cars, but on walls, skin and clothing. I quickly saw that the sketches I was doing in my school books could be more. And that is what pushed my to never give up on being an artist and trying to get into a magazine. With Carol Torres, I discovered him years later on an YouTube interview. Carlos’s tattoo style is so unique on it own. The way he makes his tattoos look painted, as if the brush strokes are actually there. I was so very drawn to that. I loved how he would do full on illustrations or paintings before he would tattoo them. His deep use of blacks and heavy shadows, and the way his introduces lighting into his artwork is amazing. This made me explore more in my shading and build depth of field in my artwork. As well as blend fantasy and reality to make a believable illustration. To blend the confidence I gained from watching Mister Cartoon and the skills I taught myself from watching Carols Torres is what you see today.

Your owl painting carries a strong sense of mystery, movement, and symbolism. What inspired this particular piece, and what does the owl represent to you personally?

I’ve been painting high end artwork for very famous and well known sculpture artists in the fine art industry for a few years. And I don’t get the recognition for the work because at the end of the day its their name on the artwork. This painting is the start of me starting to building for myself. To take my wisdom and light my own path in this industry. And show the art world what I can do.

As Creative Director and head painter for Carole Feuerman, you’ve contributed to internationally recognized fine art projects. How has this collaboration influenced your own personal body of work?

The Biggest influence for me being the Creative Director for Carole Feuermen isn’t the projects themselves, its the artisans I get to work with on a daily basis. They’re all extremely talented in there own crafts and at what they do in the studio, that I’m always able to bounce ideas off of them or get there critic on a personal piece. One of these artisans was interviewed and published in the Visual Art Journal, Lauren McAndrew. She’s actually taught me how to stretch my own canvases. Which I now because of Lauren, stretch all my own canvases in my studio. I have recently experienced a bit of burn out at a painter, do to a large project I worked on, where I was airbrushing 15 hour days for about 6 months, to keep my creativeness flowing I turned to photograph. Adding photography to my portfolio helps keeps my creative mindset flowing by diversifying my work day, which keeping me from getting fully burnt out.

Your art is deeply connected to car, street, and tattoo culture. Why do you think these visual cultures continue to inspire so many people worldwide?

All of these cultures all are a form of identity and self expression. There is a story to be told for each individual, whether it was a car that there dad or grandpa had, or a tattoo of a chapter of there life, or their uncle took them to a car show or drag race and you feel in love with the smell of race fuel or burnt rubber. A tattoo can be honoring a time in your life or someone in your life, or telling the story of rebirth. Its all how we tell our story of life and what we’ve been through.