Sunday, December 28, 2025

Head Study of a Black Woman - 2019 Sketchbook Painting

Head Study of a Black Woman. Acrylic on Paper. Alex Ariza 2019.

Mosquito - 2019 Sketchbook Painting

Mosquito. Acrylic on Paper. Alex Ariza 2019

Comfy - 2019 Sketchbook Painting

Comfy. Gouache on Paper. Alex Ariza 2019.

Honey is Gold and Gold is Priceless - 2019 Sketchbook Painting

Honey is Gold and Gold is Priceless by Alex Ariza

Honey is Gold and Gold is Priceless. Gouache on Paper. Alex Ariza 2019.

My Rejected Entries for the 69th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition

Water Tank Overgrowth

Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 24 x 36 inches, Alex Ariza, 2019

Water Tank Overgrowth. Acrylic Paint on Canvas 24 x 36 inches.

During a trip to Puerto Rico in 2018, I came across many abandoned buildings and man-made structures that had become completely overgrown with a variety of plants. This contrast became a subject matter that fascinated me - it represented the fact that everything has a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Upon my return to New York, I made a series of paintings that aimed to capture this concept. In Water Tank Overgrowth, vines, leaves, grass, and rust consume an old, neglected water tank. The surface of the canvas is raised with thick paint application and different acrylic mediums to give a variety of rough textures throughout the piece.

Rochester Incinerator

Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 24 x 36 inches, Alex Ariza 2025

Rochester Incinerator. Acrylic Paint on Canvas 24 x 36 inches.

Along the Genesee River in Rochester, NY there is an abandoned garbage incinerator that remains standing and is slowly being eroded by trees, weeds, the weather, teenagers, and junkies. The smokestack and incinerator plant was built in the 1940s by Decarie Incinerator Company of Minneapolis. The plant was decommissioned and taken over by Delco (an automotive parts manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors) in the late 1950s and eventually abandoned sometime around 1990. The painting captures the quiet inactivity of the building bathed in the bright summer sun while plants grow around it.

Hammer and Plants

Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 24 x 36 inches, Alex Ariza, 2025

Hammer and Plants. Acrylic Paint on Canvas 24 x 36 inches.

Hammer and Plants, is the artist's second attempt of an artwork originally painted in 2019. The concept of this painting is how the tools we use today will inevitably get lost and reunited with nature similar to ancient civilizations before us. The hammer is rusted and covered in small plants and moss in a larger scene of lush green plants and rocks. The rocks have a rough texture created by pumice stone in acrylic medium.

Additional Thoughts

I submitted these paintings in hopes of entering a juried show at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY where I currently reside. They were not selected. It's okay. I'll try again in 2027. I have a long way to go before my work is good enough to hang next to some truly talented artists.

Subject matter will need to be more interesting and my colors a bit more varied.

My brother Kevin now owns the Rochester Incinerator painting which is hanging in his dental practice office in Queens, NY. The other two paintings are hanging at my parents' house.