Silver Abstract Acrylic and found objects on panel 4'x5.'

"My Portuguese-American ethnicity has been a source of inspiration. As a child and teenager, I was raised in the tight-knit Portuguese-American community of Ludlow, Massachusetts, spoke only Portuguese at home, and was influenced by the traditions that my parents brought from Portugal when they immigrated to the United States from the farming town of Evora, Alcobaça, in the 1950s. For me, art is autobiographical, and no matter where my explorations take me as an artist, they are always firmly grounded in my cultural roots. This has taken many different forms over the years. At first, focusing on my ethnicity translated into realistic paintings of the people and places of my culture. Although this work was once exciting to me, I feel it was narrowing my self-expression when I look back at it now. By painting realistically, I began to stereotype my culture, creating images I thought others would like to see. More recently, my visual representations of my ethnicity have been less literal and less concrete. Still, the ethnic influence is always there in the symbols, colors, and materials and in creating the artwork. The process of creation has become more intrinsic rather than extrinsic." José L Santos

Jose Santos was born in the U.S. He works as a high school art teacher in the Boston, MA, area. Mr. Santos has taught art at all levels, from kindergarten to college, for over twenty-five years. He received a BFA in illustration and painting in 1984 and a Master of Science in art education in 1999 from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. Most recently 2019, Santos had a solo art exhibit at Multicultural Arts Center Cambridge, MA, called Portuguese People and Places. He has been an active member of the Fort Point Artist Community in Boston, where he participated in virtual open studios with numerous podcast interviews in 2020. In 2013, Santos was the center of a PRI.org interview called "What it Means for Jose L Santos to be a Portuguese- American artist." In 2018, the Archdiocese of the Catholic Church of Europe commissioned Santos to create a body of work consisting of a series of paintings and drawings of historically significant Portuguese Bishops. These works have been turned into a large tile mural in and around the Cathedral in Braga, Portugal. Additionally, the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, MA, acquired several of Santos' works in 2004. In 2021 Museum Pio 12 in Braga, the most relevant collection of religious art in Northern Portugal, also received several paintings as part of their permanent collection. He also has pieces in the Gallery at Firehouse Square in New London, Connecticut. He creates and exhibits artwork throughout the United States and abroad.