George Rodez was born in Manhattan, New York on March 20, 1957. Soon
after in 1959, because of a family illness, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Havana, Cuba. In 1961 he was reunited with his parents in Miami, and even though he enjoys traveling and exhibiting around the world, he is proud to call Miami, Florida his home.
Rodez does not always paint what people want or expect him to paint, but rather his paintings tell him what they want to be. In the words of Pablo Picasso, Rodez believes, “the painting is stronger than me, it always gets me to do what it wants” and “a painter is a man who paints what he sells, an artist, however, is a man who sells what he paints”. Rodez is an artist who believes that transition and flexibility are necessary elements for an artist to grow.
Rodez is a self-taught artist whose strength is his diversity, allowing himself the freedom to create a diverse series of artworks, each vastly different from the other. In his experiences with his mother’s mental illness, including multiple personalities, Rodez observed that each personality had a different strength and function, each serving a unique purpose. Rodez has taken that lesson and incorporated it into his art, with each series providing him different experiences and allowing all his personalities to show through. Rodez insists that an artist must explore the infinite possibilities with which he is presented and is compelled to use his artistic creativity to the maximum potential, never giving in to stagnation. He believes that as human beings, we are all very complex in our own unique way and we should share with others our many characteristics and emotions. He states that to live life is to feel all of these emotions and we should use them as tools to help us live a fuller, richer, and more complete life. Rodez lives through his paintings in this very same fashion.
Although he began his career as a mechanical engineer, art has been his passion since the age of thirteen. He now dedicates himself solely to painting and since 1992 has displayed much of his work throughout various museums and galleries nationally and internationally. In 2005, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs awarded Rodez an Artist Enhancement grant to promote his art internationally. As a result, Rodez exhibited at the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy that year. That experience launched many other international exhibitions in Europe, including in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Basel, Switzerland, and throughout Spain, including at the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona.
Rodez enjoys and believes in participating to help the community by making art contributions to raise money for charitable organizations. On November 21, 2006, former U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen recognized Rodez and stated, “The dedication shown to the arts and your involvement in fund raising for charitable organizations through your generous art contributions is truly commendable.” Rodez’s philanthropy in the community had been previously recognized by County officials, when Bruce C. Kaplan, former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, awarded Rodez with a certificate of appreciation for his participation with and coordination of an Exhibition exploring the Afro-Cuban culture entitled “De Africa A Cuba, Raices De Un Pueblo” and “Cuba Es Así”, and “for his many contributions to the community”.
Some of the organizations Rodez has contributed to most recently include the American Red Cross, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, National Kidney Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, and the list goes on with over 150 organizations having benefited from Rodez’s art contributions.