Garden Oasis
by Fermin Coronado
Exhibit: July 1 - 31, 2004
at Las Manitas Avenue Café
211 Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701
Reception: Friday, July 9, 2004, 6-8 pm
"From the Balcony" by Fermin Coronado
Fermin Coronado is an award winning artist who was recently given the Robert Rauschenburg Foundation/The Lab School of Washington grant. He was born in Brownsville, Texas and has lived in the urban/rural area of South Texas and southern Florida. He grew up in a strong support system of family, friends and colleagues who have encouraged him to pursue his creative and artistic goals. He studied at the University of Houston were he received his B.A. in art. He earned his M.F.A. in printmaking from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. His teaching certifications were received from Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas (k-12 art and elementary certification k-8). He has worked in the public schools in Houston for the past 21 years and 2 years in the Dallas public schools.
Mr. Coronado has undergone a journey of exploration and discovery as an artist and educator. He made life and career choices that placed him in situations that have challenged his creativity and inspiration. During his collective 24 years of teaching the Houston and Dallas public schools. Mr. Coronado has used multi-cultural education, art, music, dance, and theater, story telling as a means of sharing his life experiences with his budding young art students. His most noteworthy and winning multi-cultural arts programs to date were those developed in partnership with the Houston International Festival, focusing on the countries of Brazil, France, Ireland, and the southern countries of Africa.
Mr. Coronado has previously held one-person shows in such venues as the Gingerbread Square Gallery in Key West, Florida and galleries in Puebla, Mexico. He has exhibited his work in special community programs at the Dallas Museum of Art, La Peña Cultural Arts Center in Austin, Texas and the Glassell Art School at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. One of his most notable benefactors was Stanley Marcus who donated his purchase to the El Paso Museum where Mr. Coronado's work is on permanent display.
Coronado has stated, "I look at scenery and wonder who or what lives there, then I create my interpretation of the habitat" when it comes to his artwork. He has chosen colored pencil and mixed media which utilizes digital manipulation in addition to traditional techniques as his field of expertise. His peaceful, often tropical images will be on display throughout the month of July at Las Manitas with a recpetion taking place on Friday, July 9 th from 6-8 pm.