Lesson # 2 Painting

Everyday life plays a dual role for Jeine Roque; it exists as his inspiration but also as a motif that he attempts to explore with aesthetic and irony. As a student, Roque explored oil and acrylics but quickly came to understand his preferred choice of expression -- drawing. For Roque, to draw is to meet the pace with which he produces ideas. As he draws, he can interlace beauty to the absurd and the ugly of modern existence, evoking a unique interpretation of the Victorian style. From his birthplace of Cuba, Roque moved to Ecuador, where his relationship with art became more nuanced. Art, as it afforded Roque self conveyance, equally represented struggle. Just as he exhibited in the biennials of Havana, he also spent several years in artistic solitude. Similarly, art became both his teacher and his disciple, in his professorship at the University of Arts in Quito. Roque’s work -- lost and tied to material, simultaneously subtle and distant -- continues to mirror his perception of the social with a political undertone.