REV (Ralph E. Villalobos)

My work focuses on the American West through the gaze of the Latino experience. Drawing attention to Lovers, Outlaws, Bandits, Heroes, Myths and Legends. Each illustration is a story, capturing moments of strife, violence, triumph, and the fantastic. From figures of worship, pop culture icons, and revolutionaries armed with revolvers and rifles, I attempt to make sense of the past from the eyes of the present.

My process often begins by crafting my initial illustrations on a bristol board in blue pencil and ink. There I will gauge proportions, line weight, hatching and color work. Some pieces simply stop right at that point but on some occasions the finished composition lends itself to another evolution in its process through the use of acrylic on wood as a new canvas, This adds a sense of permanence to the work. Wood being an industrial and organic medium, I manipulate, carve, twist, and shape it to match my multilayered subjects and messages. Finishing the pieces by taking a red-hot branding iron and emblazing my signature onto every artwork with fire and smoke.

The art is meant to be interpreted by the viewer in any way they so choose. As an illustrator I seek to tell a story, sometimes ones of love and other times tales of horror. As a kid, I grew up exposed to three distinct cultures. My fathers impoverished beginnings immigrated from the state of Jalisco, Mexico where he suffered the loss of his father through violence and strife. My mothers heritage is from the country of El Salvador, where she fled a violent and bloody civil war. Lastly, my own personal upbringing as a first generation American from the streets of Inglewood, Lennox and Hawthorne throughout the 90s. So, what comes forth from this is a blending of the three worlds. An homage to my parents' humble Mexican and Salvadorian roots and my American sense of the romanticized west. Therefore my work is a tri-cultural version of the modern Chicano experience.