December 2003, Volume 1, Number 6 Julio Cesar Rodriguez Born Julio Cesar Rodriguez in Havana Cuba, March 16, 1956. Oldest of four siblings. Hid father passed away in 1967 due to complications of diabetes. He showed promise and passion for drawing and coloring since an early age. He came to the United States in 1968 with his mother and three siblings to escape communism and settled with other family in Chicago. He attended DePaul University 74-79 while working on pre-med major. Somewhere along the way college derailed into a computer/programming career, and is still at it twenty-five years later. Married in 1980 to Maria (also from Cuba), he has two boys Jorge (17) and Julio (13). He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Liberal Arts in 1994. Julio enjoys coaching kids baseball and basketball for the last ten years. He has a background in art with many college courses in art history, watercolor, oil painting and sculpture. Julio also has a background in color and black and white photography, with a darkroom setup in his basement. He has a preference for large format photography using 4X5" and 5x7" cameras. He enjoys an occasional traditional sumi-e painting and writing poetry. You can see some of his work and other personal interests at: http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/micasa.html In 1997 Julio became interested in woodblock printmaking. It became a passion after joining "Baren" (barenforum.org), an internet forum/group of printmaking enthusiasts founded by David Bull (Tokyo, Japan) that exchanges information and prints, as well as discussing all types of woodblock related issues and ideas. He has curated several large exhibitions of Baren's print exchanges (1999, 2000, 2003) in Skokie. He is primarily interested in learning the traditional moku-hanga technique as practiced in Japan for hundreds of years. Julio participated in twenty formal print exchanges by the group since 1998. He is also the editor for Baren-suji the group's newsletter. Julio is working at coming to grips with direction in his art and exploring ways to enhance his printmaking experience while combining new and old techniques. Favorite artists : Kathe Kollwitz, Fritz Eichenberg, Ando Hiroshige, Toshi Yoshida, Paul Jacoulet. Since 1999 he has participated in group exhibitions all across the USA and other countries. [In-Danger Species] [Andante Espressivo] [Paradise Island] [All Grown Up]
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