Eduardo F. Aguilar—a Laredo Community College alumnus, professional artist and community college educator—returns to his hometown college to display an art exhibition for the first time in Laredo on Thursday, October 14.
The LCC Art Department will host a reception for Aguilar’s exhibit, “Juxtaposition of Real and Abstract Landscapes” on October 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the LCC Art Gallery. Students and the community are invited to attend the reception and meet artist Aguilar, who has been a longtime professor of art at Tarrant County College Northwest Campus. Aguilar is also a recipient of the 2004 Minnie Stevens Piper Professor award.
Aguilar said he is excited about the opportunity to showcase his art work at LCC, where he graduated in 1960 with an Associate in Arts degree. After college, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served three years before moving with his wife, Estela, to San Antonio. There he earned a Bachelor of Art in Drawing and Painting (minor in Spanish) from Trinity University in 1969. In 1973, Aguilar moved to Denton to continue his education at the University of North Texas. He received a Master of Fine Art in Drawing/Painting (minor in Printmaking) in 1975.
In January of 1976, Aguilar became a professor of art for Tarrant County College, a position he holds presently. At TCC, he has also served as Communications Coordinator, Fine Arts Coordinator and Gallery Director.
His career has also included teaching positions for Edgewood ISD (San Antonio), UNT and Joshua Middle School.
Featured in the LCC exhibit is a survey of Aguilar’s work from 1982 to the present. He says that the landscape appeared as an abstraction in the series of non-objective landscapes. He adds that the series derived from a “sudden and very intense interest in color harmony.”
Early in the development of the series, Aguilar used crayons to create an under painting technique, which is layered with translucent oil pastels or craypas.
“I used graphite in these mixed media works. My interest in under painting and layering with translucent color was easy to translate from crayon/craypas to transparent/translucent acrylic paints,” said Aguilar.
“After experimenting with acrylic on paper, I decided to try the technique on canvas,” he added.
The symbolism in the non-objective/abstract landscapes consists of using the simple design formula in traditional landscape painting of foreground, middle ground and back ground, explained Aguilar.
The etched lines in the surface colored shapes symbolize air currents and the opaque colored dots symbolize invisible pollen.
“After moving to Fort Worth, recognized as the allergy capital of Texas, I began to suffer with allergies,” said Aguilar.
The vertical lines help balance the vertical repetitiveness of the horizontal colored lines and shapes. The diagonal lines at the horizon symbolize the rising sun of a new day, he added.
Among the work featured in the exhibit is a series entitled “Paraiso Escondido,” in which he explored the naturalistic/realistic landscape of a property that Aguilar and his wife own in Van Zandt County in East Texas.
This summer, Aguilar began new work after receiving a faculty development leave (FDL) from Tarrant County for 2004-05.
“My proposal consists, in part, to continue the series of portraits and landscapes that I have been involved with in during my career as a Master of Fine Art. I will continue to push the limits of traditional drawing and painting techniques and will explore new media and current digital imaging technology in combination with traditional methods,” Aguilar said.
To learn about current digital imaging technology, he began his faculty leave by enrolling in a digital design class at the University of Texas at Arlington this summer.
His goals are to share his 35 years of teaching professionally in all levels of public schools and higher education. As an artist, he hopes to share his 60-plus years experience of creativity in the visual arts and related experiences in music and dance. He sang various years with the Northwest Choir, the Northwest Passage (jazz choir) and danced with the chorus in a 2001 Northwest Dance Company recital.
His work has appeared in one-person and group exhibitions around the state, including Fort Worth, Denton, McAllen, Arlington, Jacksonville, Hurst, Canyon, Dallas, Lake Jackson, Edinburg and Kingsville.
He has served as an exhibition juror and curator for numerous art competitions and related events.
Aguilar’s exhibition at LCC will be on display through November 1. For more information about the exhibit, contact the LCC Art Department by calling 721-5224.
Eduardo Aguilar
A Summer Day in Webb County, Texas
Diptych, acrylic on canvas, 1994
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