Adding dimensions to art

By Ashley Livingston

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008 | midnight

In a room bare except for the drawings that graced the walls, Eduardo de la Cruz lies on the carpet imagining the day when his work will hang in galleries rather than in his bedroom.

At the age of 15, after arriving from Mexico City to his new home in Los Angeles, the future graphic design artist decided he would study art.

Nearly two decades later, Cruz, now a Las Vegas resident, is excited to say the biggest exhibition of his work since college is taking place in this city.

The Enterprise Library, 25 E. Shelbourne Ave., is hosting "Fantastical World," an eclectic mix of prints done in a technique Cruz calls "transparent collage." The exhibition through Oct. 21.

The artist will also give a lecture at the library at 7 p.m. Sept. 30.

At first glance, it's hard to imagine that each of the pieces hanging on the library walls was completed by the same hand.

Commercial photo-compilation-type pieces of Oscar De La Hoya and Mexican pop/rock band Mana rest on the wall neighboring brightly colored oil paintings and partially computer generated images on canvas that depict traditional Greek art layered above and below depictions of flowers and other representations of nature.

However different they appear, a closer inspection of most works reveals a unique unifying feature: a dramatic sense of depth.

Almost as though your eyes are adjusting to find the hidden images in a 3-D poster, the longer you stare at Cruz's work, the more becomes apparent.

Cruz accomplishes his technique by precisely controlling density and opacity, and artfully placing images one on top of the other to create one cohesive piece.

He then prints many of his works on canvas and adds the finishing touches. His technique, he said, grew as the result of the skills he learned while double-majoring in graphic design and fine arts at El Camino College in Torrance, Calif.

"I got the advantage of learning how to draw and I can use the computer," he said.

While it's mainly his graphic design experience that pays the bills, Cruz said, his passion lies in his more creative pieces.

He hasn't, however, always been drawn to the same creative process.

Both his technique of combining computer graphics with fine art and his ability to combine numerous photos of well-known people from Mexican pop culture into a multi-layered photo collage were honed by happenstance.

A car accident that left Cruz with two fractured legs and a year's worth of intense therapy to walk again also gave him plenty of time to practice his computer skills.

Cruz said he created "David's Paradise," a piece he feels defines his technique, during that time.

The vibrant pink, yellow and red canvas print depicts the Greek statue of David overlain by flowers, trees and designs.

Cruz said it's full of nature and beauty, themes that are recurrent in all his work. "Everything you see in my paintings is life," he said.

As for the works in which he combines numerous photos of people, he said, he did the first one just for fun.

While doing the graphic design for the book "El Cesar Del Boxeo" about famed Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, Cruz said he collected a huge number of pictures that spanned Chavez's life.

Layering 30 to 50 pictures, he created a work that depicts the boxer in the center raising his gloved hands in victory.

He said he has since been commissioned to do similar pieces for the Mexican musical group los Tigres del Norte and that his work may be featured as the album cover for the group Conjunto Primavera.

Ultimately, Cruz said, "I want to be a well-known artist and inspire people with my work."

He said he also wouldn't mind seeing his art displayed in any of the conference rooms or main floors of Las Vegas casinos.

"I'm always trying to go farther," he said. "I always try to reach the sun. If I don't reach the sun, I know at least the stars I'm going to touch."

Ashley Livingston can be reached at 990-8925 or [email protected].