Dr. Moises Menendez is a man of many talents. Not only does he work as a surgeon for Magnolia Regional Medical Center but in his free time he is an accomplished and passionate artist who is to have the first solo art exhibition at Magnolia Arts Center.
“I’m originally from Lima, Peru. I came to this country in the 1970’s to do surgery,” Menendez said.
“I went to different states to finish my residency program in surgery. In the 1980’s, I moved to El Dorado and I lived there for many years. Then I moved to Dallas to do wound care specialty for two years and then I came to Magnolia.”
Menendez specializes in general surgery, vascular surgery and wound care.
“When I was seven years old, I noticed that I had the talent, and people told me I had the talent to do drawings,” he said. “When I was nine years old, my father took me to an exhibition of a famous artist in Lima, Peru and I was able to copy a few of his works. He was really surprised to see a little kid copying his art from pencil and ink. He told my father, ‘Your son is a prodigy but he needs education. I don’t mind taking him to Europe.’”
“My father said yes, but my mother, of course, said, no. So we forgot about it and I continued drawing. I won many awards,” he said.
“I couldn’t go to a school of art because I was too young to do nudes. At the same time, the degree of knowledge I had in art was ahead of most others o I would have been wasting my time doing squares and perspective. Fortunately, I finished high school and went to medical school and here I am.”
“I abandoned art for years until 1989, when I talked to a friend of mine who did art and he asked me if I did oil,” he said. “I said no, but I would like to try.”
“So I started in El Dorado. I went to the art center there and I talked to a friend of mine and he showed me how to use the oil medium and canvas.”
“I think I went too fast so I figured I should go back to the basics,” he said.
“Although I had the talent, that doesn’t really mean anything unless you know the basic principles of art.”
“I went to many workshops throughout the country and I became very self-educated. I realized the best thing to do with art is to start from the very beginning so I decided to start with drawing and work my way up through pencil and pastel until I was ready for oil,” he said.
“I am now doing pastel and in the near future I am going to start doing oil, which is I believe is the ultimate climax of painting.”
“After 1989, I stopped practicing art until eight years ago when my granddaughter was born,” he said
“If you go to the art show, you will see that one side is practically full of my grandkids.”
“I don’t do very many landscapes or still lifes, I do mostly portraits,” he said.
“We have three grandchildren and a lot of those in the show are portraits of them. I will continue doing portraits of them until they grow older.”
“I also decided to draw famous people like scientists and doctors,” he said.
“When people go to paint famous people they paint the most well known people, such as Einstien, The Beatles or other people that everybody knows. If I put a portrait of, for instance, Madame Curie who invented radiation and was a famous scientist people wouldn’t know her. So I started a series of drawings that showcases famous scientists who are stars in there own way. These are featured in the show.”
“There are 60 pieces in the exhibition,” he said.
“Most of them are portraits, but I also have one landscape, one dog and a still life. The pieces that are in the show go as far back as 1989 but the bulk of it was done in the last three years.”
Menendez’s style is what he describes as an, “attempt at hyperrealism.”
“Hyperrealism is a new art that takes hours and hours. You can see every little detail,” he said.
“It’s not like copying a photograph because you have to add something to capture the attention of the observer.”
In the last few years he has grown in his skill by posting his artwork to art websites, such as www.wetcanvas.com, and getting feedback from other artists around the world.
“In surgery I try to be really precise. When I do my surgeries I try to be perfect. Of course, nobody is perfect, but I try to get near perfection. Same thing with portraits, with portraits you have to be perfect,” he said.
“If you do a landscape and miss a leaf or a branch and it won’t matter but in portraits you miss something one millimeter and it will not look the same. So that goes hand in hand.”
“The advice I would give to aspiring artists is practice, practice, practice and get critiques,” he said.
“Some people say it takes two to paint, one person painting while the other is critiquing. The person who critiques doesn’t necessarily have to be an expert they will be able to see things that you don’t.”
The reception for his exhibit is on Friday Feb. 6 and is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.. His show will be on display from Feb. 6 to March 6.
“I would really like to thank Janet-Rider Babbitt. She has been really helpful with all of this,” he said.
“I believe that this is the first one man art showcase in Magnolia Arts Center. In the past they have had competitions but nothing one person. This is also my first art show. So, we are all very excited about it.”