Dennis Estrada

The glasses helped me notice that there were actually subtleties to color I was unaware of, and intensity of reds and greens.

About the Artist

My name is Dennis Estrada. I'm originally from Puerto Rico, however I was raised both in Texas as well as in Puerto Rico. Growing up, I had an overactive imagination and definitely enjoyed drawing as a hobby. A stack of blank papers could keep me just as engaged as a video game system could. As many army brats do, I enlisted in the Army in 2002 as a 91-Whiskey at the time and ended my service in 2010. With my training I worked in the Emergency Department for 14 years, schooled, and got my nursing license with my military resources. I like to think that my art style is dynamic, as I don't stick to one subject or technique. I love studying people's faces for portraits. I feel zen when I scan a scenery for a Plein Air paining, and I feel deep relief when painting a surrealist scene. I use oils, watercolors, digital media, however my favorite is acrylic due to it's flexibility and convenient drying time. I have always been constantly drawing, doodling, and sketching. It was never a serious endeavor though mostly on account of being color-blind. It tended to be mostly funny cartoons or oddities and curiosities. I attempted going to school for graphic design to learn animation and computer graphics but quickly became frustrated due to my inability to discern basic colors such as green and red. However, I didn't pick up a paintbrush until about 2009, and that's when my direction took a sharp turn. While I had my first apartment on my own I jokingly thought a picture of myself riding a moose would have made a great talking piece when I had guests coming over to my bachelor pad. The painting was ugly, big, and obnoxious; but I found it so self satisfying that I kept making more and more. I started painting self portraits because I was the only willing participant and eventually I expanded and started painting more and more things. Working as a medic and eventually a nurse, I came across a perpetual atmosphere that permeated with human suffering. Every person in the Emergency Room was having the worst day of their lives that very moment. My patients were either brandishing life changing war injuries or facing the inevitability of death. These were people of all ages I was interacting with and I was watching life end at all stages. I've held an embryo still surrounded by it's amniotic sack, I've seen more than my fair share of deceased children, I've seen young soldiers destroyed by war, I've held someone's hand as they let go of life, and I've seen people fester within a body they no longer command. This erosion waves a powerful reminder of the fragility of the life we hold and the brevity of our stay. This has encouraged me to paint and explore different subjects. Not only does it offer me an opportunity to be at peace with the world around me, but my art also serves as a document to prove that I was here and that I once was.

Artist's Statement

"I always had the desire and ability to draw, and being constantly critiqued on using the wrong colors for the longest time caused me to avoid using colors. I kept to pencil and pen. In college I began to study computer animation but did not finish as the color intense classes were frustrating and discouraging. Several years later, I decided to start painting for myself. I began to paint with oils and acrylics and some people eventually asked for comissions. I enjoyed doing portraits but the colors of skin tones discouraged me from wanting to do more portraits. Now I paint more for myself often in different styles. I don't limit myself to a specific palette or technique. My colors are sometimes obnoxiously intense, and sometimes they are muddy and muted. I use a lot of intense shadows, but I don't quite follow many rules in color theory since I cannot see some of the colors as well. I mix my colors by chemistry, in other words, I don't go by how it looks, but often I go by the knowledge that "this color plus this color should make this other color."

Normal Color Vision vs. Color Blind Vision

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