Multidisciplinary artist Raul Rene Gonzalez uses versatile methods of painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, and performance to explore ideas of work, fatherhood, identity, gender roles, construction, labor, pop culture, movement, and abstraction.

“In this Artist-Parent Series body of work, I chose to spotlight working artists in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin who also have children. I felt it was important to showcase a different side of the working artist’s life. In this collaboration, I asked each artist to submit a photo or image that depicted how they see themselves balancing being a working artist while raising their children and then I recreated it as an oil painting.

I have been making artwork about parenthood since 2015, depicting how I balance my own art career and being the “stay-at-home parent” in our household. Thanks to a 2020 Luminaria Artist Foundation grant, I was able to share the stories of other artists while exploring oil painting for the first time.”