Focused Details / afro-Caribbean

These artworks are images of a focused-detail from some of Rodez’s favorite Afro-Caribbean series original paintings, which he felt were worthy of being their own artwork.

Rodez describes the Afro-Caribbean series as a mixture of the old with the new, the Cuban and the American, the Caribbean and the African, all rolled up into one delicious palette of colors. He uses subjects and images that would normally be used in folkloric Cuban paintings and gives them a modern pop style twist. Rodez claims that what he accomplishes in creating these paintings is a sense of voyaging back to Cuba, transforming it, and making it fresh and new, as if never touched by its over half-century of stagnation. The works act as a defibrillator bringing back to life the Cuba, Before Castro, and foretelling of the possibilities of a new beginning for the lost island of Cuba. The paintings themselves reflect the bold and vibrant colors of the stained glass used throughout the Caribbean, and with his signature double-blue backgrounds, representing Day and Night, or time, the paintings provide an illusion of being three-dimensional.