Rocky Point has a lot of talent in a young local man. He actually has some trajectory and is pretty busy with his multifaceted career as a muralist, designer, body painter and almost anything that has to do with visual arts. His Name is Israel Rios Garcia.

I have seen Israel around town, in many events, at the Malecon, at a friend’s party, at the skateboard park and also doing amazing body paint at the Bike Rally, Halloween, Day of the Dead etc.

You can also see his art just driving around town in several Murals, exhibits and even some spray paint here and there including the skateboard park area.

He has a bubbly personality and an amazing positive attitude with a contagious wide smile that makes people happy just to look at, he is a natural born artist with a combination that is really hard to find: Talent, Technique and Charisma. Some of the talents he possesses include photography, body painting, automotive and motorcycle painting, design, murals, portraits and canvases with many different techniques including airbrush. His latest incursion is in the art of tattoos, a more permanent form of body paint. Human skin, canvas, walls, metal: The surface does not matter: He can paint on it.

His body paint is both creative and realistic, Halloween and the Rocky Point Bike Rally saw a lot of his creations walking around in unworldly fashion including Tommy who had half his face painted, he mixes Mexican folk art influenced by day of the dead cultural sub-tones with American culture gory Halloween effects, he can also paint a tree growing out of a woman’s back and blend a mural with his body painted subjects until it looks like real life is coming out of the wall. On Canvas he has a lot of nature inspired creations including a frog that looks like it just landed there, still moist and shimmery from the latest jump in the pond; a bug that is about to fly away from the canvas, tarantulas, Macaws, big cats including a tiger that looks into your eyes just about to pounce, and even a moist eye in which you can see the reflection, all falling into realistic “pop out of the canvas” style, but he goes beyond realist and will draw skulls, villains, portraits and even a magnificent black and white of Marilyn Monroe. He can also reinterpret other artist’s paintings. There is no vanity in him, he is so easy going and honest with his techniques, he will try new things and say: Look: this is the first one I made with this technique, “What do you think?” And he keeps on learning, living evolving and amazing the people around him who can brush against his creativity and zest for life, he uses no drugs, doesn’t drink or smoke, he doesn’t have any vices, which allows him more time to do what he does, and keep on getting better at it.

Israel also has the innate artist sixth sense, one day we were at an event trying to clean and make the local skateboard park a better place for the local kids, he likes skateboarding and helping the community, we talk a little and he says he wants to give me something, we spent a couple of hours and when I was leaving he says: “Rita here is a present for you”, and hands me a rhinoceros painting, this is after I went to Africa on a veterinarian Safari which main purpose was to help with the conservation of Rhinos through DNA testing, microchipping horns and trackers (we made sure they were still working or installed new batteries if needed). The rhinoceros in Africa is a severely endangered species due to poaching for the mistaken belief that the powdered horn is some kind of aphrodisiac and many other believed curative powers that have never been proven by western medicine, mostly they are sold in the Asian market. Groups of rhinos in wildlife reserves need armed guards 24/7 following the animals in pickup trucks and even then sometimes poachers in helicopters get away with darting and sawing off a few horns here and there from the reserves, leaving the animal to die from bleeding or complications, some reserves have chosen to have rhinos dehorned to avoid the need for guards and some prefer not to have rhinos because of the expense involved in protecting them, so after being in Africa, going through the procedure of darting a rhino, taking blood samples for DNA testing, actually touching a rhino and seeing them in their natural environment, Israel comes to me and gives me a beautiful painting of a Rhino; I blink twice look at him incredulous and ask him if he knew I was in Africa, he says “No, but I knew you would appreciate it”.

That can only be explained with the sixth sense of a real artist, with real talent!

You can email Israel at: heromex@live.com.mx

Also look for him on Facebook and you can see a lot more of his art, just look for: IZRAEL RIOS GARCIA.