Meet Rene Gomez: Artist and Latino Marino
Azul’s #LatinosMarinos movement features ocean advocates from across the nation and around the globe. Rene Gomez, an Artist in Residency at Rhode Island Latino Arts, is one of them. He has been a creator for as long as he can remember – and his familial connection to the ocean has run just as long, perhaps longer even though Rene recalls only visiting his state’s beaches less than a handful of times in his four-plus decades of life.
Meet Rene Gomez
Born in the Dominican Republic, Rene moved to Providence, Rhode Island, during his childhood. As an elementary school youth, he would draw comic book figures for his friends – one friend still fondly remembers the Batman doodle Rene drew for him in the first grade. Rene doesn’t quite remember it, but says his art has a way of leaving a lasting impression on those who see it.
Drawing inspiration from the vibrant colors of the Caribbean, where he is from, while blending in the earthy river and bay hues of his Rhode Island home – Rene fosters his niche in pop art portraiture and grandiose murals depicting beauty, strife, and people. Whether it’s in homage to an iconic Latinx street market owner or a street mural responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rene is bold and political with his art.
The art captures both the sweet summer days at the beach and the harsh reality of what some of our beaches are facing due to the danger of plastic pollution and contamination. Photo Credit: Azul
“When I do my personal artwork, my life inspires me – things I’ve gone through, things I’ve seen, things I admire, music, family, anything that I grew up with,” he said.
Art for Ocean Justice
Rene joined #TeamAzul as part of the #LatinosMarinos movement in New England, Rhode Island this year when he embraced the opportunity to bring commissioned ocean justice art to life. And, his work reels in his local community as Rene invites local students, youth, and artists to participate.
“It’s almost like a way of trying to inspire the arts into someone who might not know they like art,” he said. “Maybe pick up a piece of paper, a canvas, draw something – you might find out that you like it, that you’re good at it.”
A self-described “city boy,” Rene’s art has never before explicitly focused on ocean conservation, but a conversation with Jessica Itzayana Vazquez Mesta, Azul’s Digital Strategist, changed that. They shared a connection that is at the heart of Azul’s successful and long-time running Deja el Plástico campaign – a memory many Latinos Marinos have of cultural conservation – their respective grandparents bypassing single-use plastic bags, instead taking reusable shopping bags to the market.
“I started thinking about this old photograph that my kid’s mother has of her at the beach from when she was a little girl, how pure everything looks at that moment in time compared to how we live today, what we see on TV all the time – animals being caught up in plastic and all kinds of debris. I based the whole idea for A Little to the Left around the photograph and came up with the concept of it being a polaroid with the little girl in the background, happy, but then there’s a sign in front of her saying ‘Be aware, it’s dangerous to swim.’”
Rene’s 40x60in canvas debuted alongside the Azul team at The Ocean Race’s Newport stop, evoking sweet summer days at the beach and the harsh reality of what some of our beaches look like today because of the “peligro” of pollution and contamination.
Rene says he is now an enthusiastic member of Azul’s #LatinosMarinos and is proud his art is generating awareness for the ocean and social justice more broadly. For all of us, Rene’s art serves as a warning of what is to come if we don’t take action and start taking better care of our ocean.
Azul’s Digital Strategist, Jessica Itzayana Vazquez Mesta, with artist Rene Gomez and his sister, who helped him transport the large canvas from Providence to Newport!