Carlos Hernandez: Day of the Dead Rock Stars

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Cactus Music and the Record Ranch

November 1, 2008-January 15, 2009

Cactus Music presents an exhibition, Carlos Hernandez: Day of the Dead Rock Stars.

When Cactus Music was resurrected last year its walls were covered with images of dead rock stars. The paintings of such acts as the Ramones, Patsy Cline and Jimi Hendrix were boldly colorful and skeletal, done in a Day of the Dead style.

Though they hung in the store for weeks, the paintings all found buyers within days, which their creator, local artist Carlos Hernandez, said "was a very surprising end to what I thought was just an experiment.''Hernandez has a new series of pieces in his Day of the Dead Rock Stars series that will be revealed during a reception at Cactus Saturday. They'll remain on display through January. Among the painted dead are Bob Marley, Joe Strummer, Bo Diddley, Dennis Wilson and Jim Morrison.

Hernandez, 46, was born and raised in Lubbock. He remembers admiring Day of the Dead art as a kid. After earning a design degree from Texas Tech, he moved to Houston in 1992. Here he began having a backyard Day of the Dead celebration at his home, which is when he hit on the idea of fusing his enthusiasm for music (he used to drum in the Flaming Hellcats) and Day of the Dead art.

"I wanted to participate in this tradition," he says, "but I didn't want it to be family or anything too personal."

He did his first dead rock star painting in 2001, a skeleton Joey Ramone shortly after the punk legend died. Hernandez says "something clicked."

The research process is more labored than the painting. Hernandez scours online materials, albums and biographies trying to find a way to represent an artist with a limited amount of paint and a handful of carefully chosen words. They end up efficiently iconic.

His Joe Strummer has the Clash singer/guitarist screaming out a bright red and blue Union Jack.

"I try to do them really fast, so it has a folk-art feel to it," he says. "If I take my time with them, they don't look right. They look too planned out."

There should be 10 new paintings this year; a lack of electricity after Hurricane Ike put Hernandez off his schedule by several days. He does his Day of the Dead Rock Stars work around his day job as creative director of Harris Hernandez, an advertising/marketing/PR company.

He'll also be offering some less expensive prints as a budget alternative, which was suggested by some fans of his work last year.

"Some people just have this strong attachment to music," Hernandez says. "They want something different that shows this connection. Maybe that's why the paintings sold so fast.

"And from a creative standpoint, there isn't a shortage of subjects."

(The above was reprinted from a Houston Chronicle article by Andrew Dansby).

Pictured: Day of the Dead Rock Stars painting of Jim Morrison by artist Carlos Hernandez.