Return Voyage

Mixed media art by John Patrick Hill

Assemblage and earlier paintings based on love and peace. Each work is built on earth energy and visions of epiphany.

Artists Bio:
John began his career in 1990, just after leaving school at CSU Dominguez Hills. He became connected to the Chicano art scene after working with Prof. Miguel Dominguez in setting up an exhibit through Self Help Graphics for the University.But, his roots go further back. A cousin of his actually cooked for Caesar Chavez and the crews during the grape boycotts. His aunt, a hard working activist for Chicana rights, penned the work, Sterling Silver Roses, a book of Chicana poetry.

It was his aunt’s work ethic and gritty hard edge that made a permanent impact on John’s life.
John’s career was just taking off in the mid – 90s. Two solo shows in the Mission District of San Francisco, working with the East Los Streetscrapers. It was David Botello who introduced John to Denise Lugo, then director of the newly forming Latino Museum of History, Art, and Culture and John was part of the Museum’s first Dia de los Muertos exhibit and placed a piece into the Museum’s permanent collection.

And that is when the lead poisoning came into play. It turns out, John was using an oil paint, which contained the toxic metal lead in its binder, and he began to show signs of metals poisoning.
His ability to carry on the most basic of human relationships began to break down and soon he had to leave his family and leave Los Angeles. It devastated him. Though he continued to create, he was not exhibiting. There was sporadic work but the lead poisoning made it impossible to carry on anything beyond the basic motorized pattern of putting brush to canvas.It would not be until 2013, that John began getting the therapy he needed to finally rid his system of the lead.

This exhibit marks the end point in ways, and a beginning.

August 13th, 2016 – September 3rd, 2016.