BIOGRAPHY

My name is Noel Palmenez and I was born in the state of Washington to two of the hardest working  and caring parents Odon and Marisela Palmenez.  I mention the word working because it has created a pathway to who I am and the way I value and live life.  The day I got married at the age of thirty three was the last day I worked the fields and picked my last piece of fruit from the orchards.  Even though I had a bachelors degree, two masters degrees  in art as well teaching full time at at a high school and adjuct at he university, and exhibiting my artworks in California and Texas, I felt an obligation to my parents to help in any way that I could.  There are many types of work, but not very many that are humbling yet build character like working in the fields.  Those experiences have created a mental and emotional toughness that makes creating art a blessing.  I have always been a creative person and even though I was raised on a small farm and new little of the world my imagination was sufficient, art gave me balance.  My sense of play and recreation was drawing creative things that expressed ideas of wonder. 

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Being self-taught was an exact statement because ours school was so small that we did not have art classes.  When I graduated from High School I was taken by a family friend to Texas Southmost College to meet with an academic counselor, and I remember the only question I asked was, “do you teach art here?”  That same day I was introduced to Carlos Gomez.  The art building was not a building but a converted large home with a few large rooms.  He shared the space with late and great George Truan.  I had no prior visions what a college should have looked like, but all I did know was that I would never miss a day of school for as long as I was enrolled.  I lived in La Feria and I did not have a vehicle but lived along the old highway and learned to take the Valley Transit Bus system for many years.  The bus would stop at every small town and pick up people along the road like myself, and it would be four hours of my day for many years until I had a vehicle of my own. Patience has been a virtue that I value and has served me well in my life and the way I create my art.  I believe everyone has a mentor and you take upon their shape and interests until you begin to find yourself in this world and gradually develop to what you are hopefully able to keeping true to your being. 

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My love has always been drawing, even though it may not have the spotlight of painting, black and white and infinite nuances are my favor.  However, that passion has allowed me to transition to all mediums even sculpture without losing their potential.  As my motto when teaching art, physically it’s about the development of coordination of eyes to hand, strengthening harmony and muscle memory, teaching the eyes  how to see again, encouraging the mind to be more ambitious and make better choices,  and for the spirit to take pride within its creations.  In my life like all people things continue to introduce themselves to your life creating “book markers,” into different stages that can be seen in my work from my days being a field worker, religion, family and everything else.  A criticism of my work that I interpreted as a negative label is that my work is illustrative and not “fine art.”  I interpreted that criticism in a variety of ways in that my work cannot be perceived as “elite” because it is too narrative and realistic even though I do not copy from pictures, or that it is not intellectual enough even though it is full of many working parts that are working in harmony.  Experience and age creates much clarity and perspective, as far as to what fine art represents is just  a label for artists that embrace the abstract, the visceral,  and the flirting of the medium in unconventional ways.  I have a few works done in the “fine arts” and didn’t work towards my interest or being for creating art.  From my experience this version of “fine art” is not difficult to create or defend as piece of conceptual creation.  Overall, I do not like its elitist status within the world of art.

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As far how can someone identify my style is easy, and that is abundance.  My approach to my art is my work ethic and that our natural world is infinite and I approach it with relentlessness and as a long road to its destination and being complete.  I don’t like being a slave to any images and prefer to create my own people and landscapes.  I do believe in taking chances and that there should be a thrill of failure.  I like many artists are always looking for inspiration even in the most of unremarkable or, “ugly” things we walk past.  If I have any talent it would be my sense of observation, I rarely passively look at anything, I look at my world and connect the dots.