Artist at Work

Just off Colon Plaza, straight east past the Pizzerella pizza parlor, Juan Voight shows up to work every day. He says he has been an artist since he was a little boy, teaches at the college just behind his little outdoor work space, and makes his living as a full time artist. He works deliberate. Watercolors demand precision, a good sense not to let the brush stay too long in one place, be too wet or have too much color in the bristles. Watercolors can be quirky, like water itself. Juan’s items for sale include originals, but, also popular, are postcards he runs off in series of 100 and sells three for $10.00 U.S. His prints are of scenes one sees in the Zona Colonia – the Cathedral, the Plaza Espana, the Parque Colon, the Alcazar de Don Colon. Juan remembers me from an earlier conversation and takes the time to make me a special carrying pocket for my postcards, carefully recording his name and instagram gallery url on the outside. I remember the studios of Carlos Paez Vilaro, the Uruguay artist ,and Roberto Ibarra, in Montevideo, and Ann’s studio in Granada, Nicaragua, and my mother’s studio in the downstairs of our home in Albuquerque, paintings in all stages of completion hanging on walls till they were shipped to competitions or hung in galleries. I remember the Cerulean Gallery in Amarillo, Texas. I remember street art everywhere. Juan’s works are a combination of creative spirit tempered by the hands of a craftsman.. The medium you work in makes demands and determines your process and product. Scotttreks postcards average two hundred words each. You can’t say too much in two hundred words,but you never want to say too little.