18-year-old Porterville artist opens his own studio Resnicks’ purchase of his painting helps him get started
Cesar Martinez Jr.’s father always said, “Expect nothing and be grateful for anything.”
So when the young artist had an opportunity to showcase his art in February at the Bird Dog Arts Gallery at The Outlets at Tejon, he was excited, but he didn’t let himself worry about the future.
The show left Martinez, 18, grateful for the sales and for the connections he made.
“It went amazing. That’s why I was able to do this,” he said pointing to his new studio.
At the show, the Resnicks — billionaires who are the world’s largest producer of pistachios and almonds, own Fiji Water and Halo clementines, and have their name on Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Resnick Pavilion and UCLA’S Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital — purchased one of his paintings.
“I’ve never met them and have not spoken with them,” Martinez said. “But the show was huge and it really put my name out there and connected me to an art dealer. And financially, gave me comfort to do this.”
Martinez referred to the rental of a threeroom studio on Mill Street in downtown Porterville.
After obtaining the keys to the building on April 13, Martinez said he spent an entire month pulling up green carpeting and having his uncle paint the pinkish walls to a blank white slate. He also added new flooring to the room he converted into his office.
“I’ve only been here two months but I had to put a lot of work into it,” he said.
Since he was working on the studio, he took a semi-break from art, working only on three small canvas pieces.
“The first one, I did in 15 to 30 minutes — start to finish,” Martinez said before waving his arm around the room. “And that painting was the starting point of this
whole collection. I had just finished reading Animal Farm, so I painted figures that looks like a human and looks like a pig. Humans resembling pigs.”
He then went out and purchased several huge canvases, he said.
“Before my studio, I started in the backyard,” Martinez said. “It was not simple. I could only do one piece at a time. I never really had a theme. Now I can do many at once and have them bleed into one another.”
But now that his studio is up, he can focus on several paintings at once — putting some aside when he needs to step away from them for a while before continuing.
His focus now is on completing 40 pieces. Many of them filled with symbols. His paintings, many of them attached by a central theme but each one telling its own story, are scattered across the three rooms at his studio.
Martinez walked around his studio, pointing out his works in progress. Many canvasses were laying on the floor in various stages of completion, while others were mounted and either hanging on, or leaning against, walls
The beginning of one painting had the word “yokut” on it and is the result of his fascination with Yokut exhibits after visiting the Porterville Museum.
Martinez said he carries a notebook with him and when inspiration hits, he sketches and writes in it.
“Some of my paintings are from early cave paintings,” he said, admitting he knew little to nothing about Porterville’s native people until recently and talked of the sketches in his binder. “I got these figures from the (museum) Yokut baskets. There was also a little dog on a clay pot.”
After the museum, he researched the Web, made phone calls, and watched Youtube videos about Yokut cave paintings.
Another canvas had a painting of a bull.
“I kept drawing the bull and didn’t know why,” he said.
And like the pig/people painting, eventually the bull too led to several paintings.
A painting of two human pigs at a Thanksgiving table held up by a hard-working man depicted so much, he said. From the strength of the worker supporting a mega corporation while numerous pesticides and insecticides are listed on the painting.
Another pig human painting hanging in his office also had the Scales of Justice in it, along with the words “No Checks No Balances” on it, as well as “Insider Trading.”
“I use a lot of height markings,” he said, referring to the markings of a ruler next to the drawing indicating the face was 3 feet tall but with the top hat it wore, measured at 6 feet.
“It’s all about money, control, power,” Martinez said.
Another piece titled “The death of a salesman” depicted a skeleton of what was once a normal person holding onto the scales of justice. He’s motivated, he said, by reading obituaries.
“That’s why I love this piece. I love to explain it,” Martinez said. “The ideas are more complicated. The person is dead and now is looking back on their life.”
This time, he said, it’s not a pig person but a puppeteer with the scales of justice.
And a pyramid painting with seven pig people at the bottom, three in the middle, and one at the top of the pyramid was first started as a joke about multi-level schemes on canvas depicting and making fun of crypto currency and Ponzi Schemes while also making fun of the NASDAQ Market and stocks dropping with the words “NASDAQ said so.”
“Most people don’t know they are playing into that scheme,” he said. “They don’t know they are scamming other people.”
Martinez said a big part of his work was “Trojan Horse” — appearing simple at first but with meaning.
A painting with two pig people boxing, one inside a red “Texas” box and one in a blue “California” box, also featured the “3 feet” markings on the characters but sixfeet when their dunce hats are measured. The two are boxing next to the words, “Quadrennial Brawl.”
“The whole point is to make people think,” he said. “They are fighting every four years.”
And paintings of the front and back of a dollar bill depicts how much money is worth.
But no matter what he paints, he said, he always does it with a lot of noise.
“The whole point is to not think of anything,” he said, adding when he works, he will have the television or radio on to people talking, and will have the music blaring and static noise going. “That way I don’t have to think about anything.”
Martinez said he wants to make something complicated because that way it can be made in so many different ways.
“That’s why I like taking the earlier stuff,” he said. “I’m excited and hopefully this summer I can set up some kind of event. I’m very passionate about Porterville and hope to make something happen.”
Martinez also said he realizes he can’t be tied down to a small town.
“I have to be ready to go when the time comes so I’m just getting all set up,” he said about moving to Los Angeles eventually to pursue his art. “I’m OK with it if the steps come. My plan is to have something going before I leave. Right now my main focus is in Porterville.”