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Jet Martinez grew up in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and moved with his mother and brother to Colorado when he was fourteen. He has been painting ever since that move, most recently creating murals in his seven-year home of San Francisco.
His childhood in Mexico appears everywhere in his paintings: in the lushness of the plants as well as in the intense background colors and textures. Ever since a friend asked him to complete some gold-leaf detailing in his home, the material has taken a prime spot among his favorite glitters, resins and reflective paints.
Most of Martinez’ work is public. Though gold tarnishes when exposed to the elements, it also appeared as part of the sun in his recent Clarion Alley mural, where Martinez will observe its ability stand up to time and weather. Patient observation and deliberate, painstaking work are familiar territory for the artist. He spent six weeks creating his Painted Room.
Martinez delights in the technical aspect of his work. He has moved gradually from realism to a more atmospheric approach, rendering plants first as surrounding backdrops and more recently as the central focus of his paintings. The addition of gold leaf has transformed his sculptural, geometric patterns into “super-plants,” he says.
Martinez’ next step? Mural painting in Brazil with artist-girlfriend Kelly Ording (Room 308).
“Murals are a chance to make a whole world,” he says, “and fill it up.”
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