Episode 6: Capturing Emotion: A Conversation with Fine Art Painter Michael Rodriguez

Michael Rodriguez's artistic transformation from photographer to watercolor master weaves a compelling narrative of adaptation and discovery. From his earliest days of tracing and sketching as a child to his pivot into photography in his mid-20s, Michael's creative journey took an unexpected turn when COVID halted his thriving photography practice. What emerged from this pause was a remarkable talent for watercolor painting that combines technical precision with emotional depth.

Transcript

Introduction to Michael Rodriguez's Art

Speaker 1 0:09

all right , we have the fantastic michael rodriguez with us tonight thank you so I want to jump right into your art because I was checking it out and you have some beautiful pieces . Your fine art just has this amazing detail that kind of jumps off the canvas . You have this beautiful way of working with light and the hair and the pieces . Just every , every little detail is beautiful . But I'm going to back up because I'm getting excited . Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you came to doing art .

Speaker 2 0:36

Well , it's hard to . I was like where do you start off with ?

Speaker 1 0:40

You can go back , you can go way back , little Michael .

Speaker 2 0:43

Little Michael . I always did like to draw . I started off by tracing as a little kid and over the years you get better and better . In high school I took art classes . In college I took more art classes , but I really didn't follow through on that . About mid-20s , about 2008 , I started started doing photography and I got really entrenched in that . I did photography until COVID pretty much .

Speaker 2 1:12

And I did a lot of . If you see a lot of my artwork , it's a lot of like fine art , yeah , kind of boudoir , like fine art nudes . Well , my photography was mostly like related to that . Okay , so obviously , along come COVID . We can't really mix with people and we don't want to get each other sick , so it kind of like I needed to do something .

Speaker 1 1:35

Yeah .

Speaker 2 1:35

So I had a really good friend , Rachel , that we went on a little art date and she brought watercolors and I was playing with them and I fell in love with them and I already knew how to sketch and draw , but never painting . So , um , it's been about like three years since COVID ended yeah , I guess I'm going on like four years now . Huh , yeah , I think so , uh , so that's about my , my length of painting . So obviously I'm getting better and I'm trying to like honestly , it's incredible .

Speaker 1 2:06

It's only been that long , so you must have a natural talent .

Speaker 2 2:09

I think I have a . Truthfully , the way I see it is , I have a really good concept of shading and death . So , like , if I have a medium that I know how to shade , I think I could do it . I'm trying to like learn oil painting , but it's you know , it's a complicated process too .

Speaker 1 2:28

So is your main medium then the watercolors .

Speaker 2 2:30

Yes .

Speaker 1 2:30

Okay , so from photography to watercolor , I love that . And now you're messing with , like the oils , a little bit .

Speaker 2 2:36

A little bit . I don't want to go on a big tangent . Yeah , watercolor is its own . Like beast , it's unforgiving and you know you make a mistake .

Speaker 1 2:46

It's pretty much most likely that's it yeah , I was gonna say I feel like that's almost harder to work within the oil yeah , because , oh , you could just layer and fix you're like cool , I'll just slap some more stuff over that yeah , pretty much .

Speaker 2 2:57

You could just redo the whole painting if you wanted to . Yeah , you know , watercolor , once you make a , a terrible mistake , it's pretty much over . I think the piece that I have here , solar Vines I don't know if you've seen the two I have up here .

Speaker 1 3:13

No , I've only . I just checked out all your stuff on your page . I was like creeping on your page and looking at all your pieces and stuff , like that .

Speaker 2 3:18

It's the one where it has like a solar , like flare , like a halo around it .

Speaker 1 3:23

It's the newest , one of the newest ones like flare , like a halo around it . It's . It's the newest , one of the newest ones . You guys will have to come check it out .

Speaker 2 3:27

It's hanging up an exhibit , it is , but um that one . I made a mistake , uh , where I dropped . Um . I was painting her

Photography to Watercolor: Michael's Origin Story

Speaker 2 3:36

hair and a some a drop of paint landed , like on her sternum chest area and so the only way I could fix it is to paint hair , like extend her hair , like flying over her part of her chest , and like it worked I mean , that's an accident I mean , it would have been . You know I my original vision was without that , but it worked really well .

Speaker 1 3:59

It just happens I feel like the hair details in your drawings are just exquisite , like the light and everything . Like I can tell you've , like , worked with photography , because you know where to hit the light and the pictures and things like that , so you know where to accent correctly , like you said , your shading and things is just fabulous um , I'm always trying to like .

Speaker 2 4:17

For me it's the eyes , too like to catch light in your eye like you have catch lights in your eyes , and I'm just thinking about photography .

Speaker 1 4:23

The whole time I'm looking at your face , but , um it , it's just like those things help a lot yeah , absolutely , because you know where to go in and you know add the light and add the shading and things like that from photography . So I'm sure I .

Speaker 2 4:38

I assume that's where it makes it easier . You're probably totally right . I don't think it .

Speaker 1 4:42

I don't think it's easy , but you make it look easy . So explain to me a little bit what inspired you to start getting into . You know what kind of sparked that for you Like ?

Speaker 2 4:58

photography . Where did you pick up the camera Photography ? It started off as macro photography , like taking pictures of like insect eyes and stuff that we don't normally see .

Speaker 1 5:08

Oh my goodness , oh it's weird .

Speaker 2 5:09

You're like let me go really really deep with it yeah , you're like you flip the lens , you well , I at the time I was using like a , an early digital camera , and you would use adapters and you would flip over a lens the other way so you could get , um , a really weird close-up view , but it's like paper-thin death of field . Anyways , that's like a whole tangent . I started off with that and then I started with eyes like human eyes , and I was fascinated by that . From there I just started taking pictures of people , like portraits , and I got involved with Well , I became friends with a group of people that would do the Rocky Horror Picture Show .

Speaker 1 5:52

Oh , awesome yeah .

Speaker 2 5:53

And a lot of them were . You know , they were very like , open , I guess , about themselves , and they would ask me if they would shoot like , like , maybe like artsy nudes , and I was like I don't know , I guess I could try it yeah and it ended up working out really well and and that's how I got into that line .

Speaker 2 6:10

But I also did , uh , professional like headshots . I did uh , I I did a lot of portraits of , like , students from ada , like american academy of dramatic arts , I believe in holly , and so that kind of opened it up like crazy . Once I started doing that , it was like people from other countries wanted to shoot and it was fun until COVID .

Speaker 1 6:31

That's so cool . Are you still doing photography now ?

Speaker 2 6:33

I do photography , but not as extensive as I used to . I only really jump into stuff if I'm interested in it or if someone comes to me wanting a specific look . That I you know and I know them , yeah , um , new people , it happens , but uh , unless I have like a vision of something or I think more now , a lot of times I shoot for reference art , for painting , painting okay and some of my paintings are from my photography too I was gonna say a lot of it .

Speaker 2 7:06

I feel like you could probably pull from your photography or it seems like that , especially since you're doing like the boudoir kind of stuff yeah , you , when you have a big catalog , it's not that hard to find reference work and you know , as long as you , if you get likenesses , you know you obviously have to talk to the person I'm going to paint you , is that okay ? Yeah , yeah , a hundred percent .

Speaker 1 7:25

So how do you go about so ? Moving on to that , how do you go about choosing your subjects or how you're going to mix things , because I know I saw a lot of Day of the Dead , inspiration type stuff .

Speaker 2 7:35

That just started about two years ago . Okay , I started dabbling in it and I just expanding that and I really obviously I really liked the history and the meaning behind it and I like incorporating it into my art , even though I don't know if it's for everyone too , because how do you equate , like , sexuality and Day of the Dead together ? It's kind of a weird mix .

Speaker 1 8:02

Yeah , but art is subjective , yeah . So I feel like you know there's always that niche that people are . You know you're still respectful with it and I think you represent it very , very well and I think you know there's that mixed medium to it as well so .

Speaker 2 8:14

So , like it's

Watercolor Techniques and Happy Accidents

Speaker 2 8:15

like always in the back of my mind is this too much ? I'm like , am I going too far ?

Speaker 1 8:19

no matter what , we're always gonna . Offend somebody to offend somebody . Sometimes I just got to say fuck it .

Speaker 2 8:23

Yeah , I'm pretty sure everyone deals with that , like , did it just go too far ?

Speaker 1 8:27

I know we're like where's the line ? Did I cross it ?

Speaker 2 8:30

Maybe I should push the line .

Speaker 1 8:32

So that kind of like segues into my next question Like what emotions or like messages do you have that you want to like convey through your photography , or do you have anything like that that you really want to get across ?

Speaker 2 8:44

I think it's a connection . I really like the connection between , like maybe , the subject and the viewer , or just between two people . Like some of my photography , it has to do a lot with touch , like passion and sensual touch , not like in an adult way , but just like touching faces and skin to skin contact .

Speaker 2 9:08

I really enjoy that kind of like capturing that kind of moment and sharing it , and I will want people to look at like my paintings or my photography , and just see themselves in that Like this is part of this , is I experienced this too you know , that's what I want .

Speaker 1 9:25

Do you feel like it kind of you're helping take away a little bit of that taboo from that ?

Speaker 2 9:30

I'm not that big of a like trendsetter .

Speaker 1 9:32

Aw .

Speaker 2 9:33

You know , I hope . I think there is a lot of taboo out there that needs to be . I think would be healthy if it was more open . I think it would solve some issues that our society sees , but that's a complex issue .

Speaker 1 9:48

It is .

Speaker 2 9:49

I mean , if we could do anything to desensitize a lot of men to concepts of what represent , it would help out with a lot of things . Yeah , a more sensitive sensuality feel about it and not sexualizing like straight sexualizing . Yeah , it doesn't have to always be sexual .

Speaker 1 10:11

It can be more sensual and have more meaning behind it instead of , like you know , just oh well , there's your boobs .

Speaker 2 10:16

You know , I know , yeah , I mean my eyes . It's like boobs in it , but it's just not the main focus of what I'm trying to represent .

Speaker 1 10:26

Yeah , it's sexy , it's , you know . It's beautiful . It's not something to be , you know . Oh , this is just for this one purpose .

Speaker 2 10:33

It has multiple purposes .

Speaker 1 10:35

It's , you know , something very beautiful to look at and enjoy . Yeah , I totally . I get it . That's awesome , Nice . So are there any specific techniques or styles you prefer when you're painting your portraits ?

Speaker 2 10:47

So you probably noticed I like doing a lot of gilding in my work . I love the gold on there .

Speaker 1 10:51

It's so beautiful . That was the word I couldn't come up with , so I'm glad you said it the gilding .

Speaker 2 10:55

The gilding . I fell in love with that . There's some artists that I like , like Kellogg Loops . He's on Instagram and he started doing it . Well , I learned off of him YouTube University , literally . So I watched a lot of his videos and other people's videos and that's how I learned . But gilding , I like that raw earth . You know , adding pieces of earth to my painting . I mean , all the pigments are , you know , from the earth anyways .

Speaker 2 11:28

But , like gold . It's like 24 karat gold or 23 karat rose gold . It's just so striking and catches your eye at the right angle . When you're done with this , you can check out the paintings and you can just look at them yeah .

Speaker 1 11:42

I want to see the ones here .

Speaker 2 11:44

They're just , you know , from a distance , they just like capture your eye and it frames , like the subject really well . The gold gilding is probably something I'm working a lot on and I'll talk about a little future project I'm working on .

Speaker 1 12:00

Please do yeah .

Speaker 2 12:02

So you know what shibari is right .

Speaker 1 12:04

Yes , yeah .

Speaker 2 12:06

Okay , so one of the pains I have here is touching on that , but braided rope . What I want to do is I want to paint individual strands for the rope and have it raised so you can literally see it's gold rope . It looks like it's coming out of the painting . Oh , I love that . I can totally visualize that . See it's gold rope .

Speaker 1 12:22

It looks like it's coming out of the painting . Oh , I love that . I can totally visualize that . So it's super detailed , yeah .

Speaker 2 12:25

So that's something I'm working on and that should be exciting when I could do it .

Speaker 1 12:30

Yeah , yeah . That's going to be a lot of work . It will be , but it's going to be gorgeous when it's done .

Speaker 2 12:34

It's the same with hair . The same process .

Speaker 1 12:37

I like individual gold strands and make it super dense , like a regular head of hair I kind of felt like there's a painting of yours with a girl on the ground and she's like flipping her hair back did you do the guilting on that one .

Speaker 2 12:48

Yeah , that was . Uh , that was one of my early paintings .

Speaker 1 12:51

There's so much action in that and you can just feel the emotion in that , in that painting .

Speaker 2 12:55

It's gorgeous you guys go on check it out , you guys nice , I saw you like that one , so I was like I was like I'm all .

Speaker 1 13:02

I took a look at total creep I guys . 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 , 00,00,00,00 00,00,00 , tiring to shoot . Well , it's got that movement and it just invokes like an emotion .

Speaker 1 13:25

You know you can see that , okay , she's either enjoying herself thoroughly or there's , you know , something going on there . Um , so how do you handle ? So ? I know you're very adaptable , cause you said you had spilt something on one of your portraits or your paintings and you had to change it right away . So how are you with handling those challenges and their difficulties when painting ?

Speaker 2 13:47

well , you know , sometimes you're like going along and you have a wonderful painting and you make a mistake and it's just like the only solution is to start over . Oh no , the painting that , that painting I just told you about . It's the second version of the paint . The first original version . I was using a blue paint I think it was Mayan blue and it stained in a weird way I think it might have been like oil from my fingers . You got to be like super , don't touch the paper when you're painting because the pigment will stick to the oil and it'll make it darker . And it was like right in like the cleavage area , and it was like there's no way to fix it , and so I had to like literally start over , but it came out better than I expected .

Speaker 2 14:35

Either way maybe the second go-around was like the magic minerals , yeah well yeah , I had to like gloves on my hands and like don't touch it . Paper towels everywhere . I think . There's like a video , I think on my TikTok , that shows me painting through it . Oh , that's great .

Speaker 1 14:51

Okay , We'll link all of your socials too , because everyone's got to check them out . Your work is great . So what has been your most like as far as like working with either painting or and the boudoir stuff throughout your career and things you've worked on ?

Speaker 2 15:09

what's been your most memorable experience so far ? Truthfully , it's when some of the amazing ladies I worked with . They tell me stuff like I love working with you .

Photography Background and Artistic Evolution

Speaker 2 15:24

For some reason , they always say the similar phrase . Where I'm soothing , it's like I don't know , okay , so I don't know calming personality .

Speaker 1 15:28

I can see that . I think so .

Speaker 2 15:30

I think it's also when I'm dialed in , I'm like I talk , you know .

Speaker 1 15:34

I try to explain everything and there's no surprises and you're professional and because I've worked with a lot of photographers and you either get the creepy heebie jeeps off of a photographer or photographer or you're like , okay , this is a good dude and we're going to be it's you know a chill vibe and you're you know , I can see that there's no point in ever being like bringing something out , like you know , like something unexpected . Yeah .

Speaker 2 16:05

I would like everything talked about to extreme and what's like what people are happy with and what they don't like or what they do like yeah , they know what to expect from you , you know what they you need from them .

Speaker 1 16:11

situation that's good . And it helps a lot with um word of mouth , obviously , cause you know Well , reputation gets around a hundred percent especially through model , the modeling community , but it's I've even had in the past , you know , worked with photographers that I've been totally comfortable with and the other girls have been uncomfortable with . So I think , too , it's like you know the model , knowing you know what to expect and what needs to be expected of that photographer , and vice versa too , because I know there's been some crazy cuckoo models too .

Speaker 2 16:41

Yeah , luckily I've been in a pretty drama . Uh , drama free environment .

Speaker 1 16:47

So you're very happy about that .

Speaker 2 16:48

Yeah , I , I understand how what could happen and what has happened , and I've had other photographers and model friends that tell me stories and , yeah , I get it yeah , especially in your line of photography , because I know things can get a little a little crazy .

Speaker 1 17:02

So , okay , what's going on with you ? Do you have any shows coming up ?

Speaker 2 17:06

um here , just here , um , um , not far from here , bootlegger , okay , the brewery um I had a about like eight of my paintings up there earlier , but they asked me to come back post , you know , once this runs done and with some new paintings . Um , they really enjoyed them , so I'll probably do that . Truthfully , I'm really new them . So I'll probably do that . Truthfully , I'm really new to gallery shows . This is probably my second time showing my work in public , so it's like really new for me .

Speaker 1 17:33

That's great , though I mean especially only , like you said , four years in with this and you're doing shows and everything . That's huge .

Speaker 2 17:39

Yeah , I hope it just keeps going . I'm excited about it and see how it grows up .

Speaker 1 17:45

Have you been successful at selling a few pieces ?

Speaker 2 17:48

Yeah , I sold like three pieces through my little showings . I'm excited about that .

Speaker 1 17:53

And then like privately . That's fantastic . So what do you hope that viewers , when they're looking at your work whether it be photography or your paintings and things like that what do you hope that they take away from those pieces ? I ?

Speaker 2 18:06

hope they get like raw emotions flowing to them , good or bad , it's just help people . You know , I want them to experience some emotion that shows that they're , you know , obviously they're living , but shows that they're alive still and whatever you know , just want them to be excited about my work .

Speaker 2 18:25

Yeah , and I think for me , the true success is someone hanging one of my paintings in their home . Uh , it doesn't matter about like the money or anything . I just want people to enjoy my work and look at it and share it with their friends 100 , that's like the ultimate goal . Walk into random places you're like , that's my work I know right , it's like oh yeah , or like that's my painting and so what are your future plans ?

Speaker 1 18:49

I know you said you have a show coming up um where , let's say , like two years down the road , what's your big goals ? What are you working towards right now ?

Speaker 2 18:56

probably like a bigger private , like gallery showing or something where you know , like in hollywood , or something where you know , open to the public and bigger you know , you're taking stepping stones . I have friends that are like insane in the art , like big gallery shows . One day I just want to like more people to see my work in person .

Speaker 1 19:18

Well , and as far as what you said , your art has progressed so much , and it seems like so quickly , that I think that that's I mean you're on the right track for sure . Thank you I .

Speaker 2 19:28

I think the only limiting factor is learning technique and that's it . That's everybody right ?

Speaker 1 19:32

yeah , I know right , there's like 10 000 hours learning yeah , oh , thank you for your time and thank you for sharing your story and things like that , any words of wisdom to leave us with today just be kind and happy .

Speaker 2 19:45

That's it .

Speaker 1 19:46

Okay , I always throw a trick question in there for everyone , all of my little interviewees what is your favorite scary movie ?

Speaker 2 19:53

The Thing .

Speaker 1 19:54

Yes , I love . It Okay , the new one or the old one .

Speaker 2 19:56

The old one .

Speaker 1 19:57

Yes , original , all the way . I love it . I love it too because everyone has a different answer . It's always something different .

Speaker 2 20:03

It's like one of the only scary movies that doesn't have a subplot about romance or some tangents . Everyone's trying to survive , everyone's doing their best to survive and making the best decision possible at the moment . It's really cool .

Speaker 1 20:17

And they're actually working together .

Speaker 2 20:18

Yeah .

Speaker 1 20:19

I love that , because so many of these movies , even watching Walking Dead , it's all the humans fighting against the humans .

Speaker 2 20:25

It always goes back to conflict .

Speaker 1 20:27

Do you realize the zombies are coming to kill you ? I know right oh well , thank you , and I wish you nothing but good luck , and I can't wait to see more of your pieces . I absolutely enjoy them . They're so beautiful . So thank you so much . Very nice to meet you .

Speaker 2 20:42

Nice to meet you .