Meet Marcos Hernandez Chavez | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marcos Hernandez Chavez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcos, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I knew I wanted to be an artist by the time I was ten years old, and when I graduated from college and started working as an art installer in Houston, I gave myself ten years to complete the goal of being able to work on my own practice. I can look back now and see how it all happened organically, but it was very much so learning as I went.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a painter and weaver who uses hand built peg boards to draw multi-layered images referencing the rural life I grew up around in Mexico. This has been a self-developed process to create compositions that allow me to reference all of the artists and movements that I’ve admired and learned from. The research, trial and error, and the work involved in creating these pieces has been arduous and incredibly time-intensive, but creating my first large scale pegboard weaving was incredibly satisfying, seeing something that felt like a figment of my imagination actually existing has opened up the possibilities of growing more and pushing even more boundaries in terms of what I can draw with my work.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
On a good day, let’s start out at the Menil Collection, then go on over to Sig’s Lagoon and check out a good vinyl album to break in at the end of the day. Have a midday coffee at Double Trouble before going to Eado Bike Co, renting a few bikes, and discover that Houston is an incredible city to enjoy via the bike trails around the bayous if you give them a chance. You can turn them in at the end of the day so afterwards head into downtown and hit up Margaux’s for happy hour oysters, and finish up by enjoying the balcony at Bad News on Main Street.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are three people who I’d like to thank because I miss them. This is for Geri Hooks and Clint Willour for giving me my first opportunities to exhibit in Houston, and for Michael Galbreth, for slipping me a 20 one day he ran into me while I was waiting tables in Midtown.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/marcos.el.indio

Image Credits
1st Image courtesy of Nelson Vanegas and ALMAAHH 2 and 3 courtesy of Susy Perez