California-born artist Hank Garcia's art is tactile and three-dimensional, incorporating a variety of influences -particularly ancient cave paintings. The work is infused with an affinity for unorthodox applications of concrete, wood, steel and fire exhibiting a labor intensive physicality that draws the viewer into a multi- dimensional surface. "The canvas is a stage, a proscenium for reaction," says Garcia. Garcia frequently paints about the journey of lovers, progressing his figurative expressions through multiple layering in mixed media. The provocations of desire, loneliness, fear, jealously, manifesting themselves in a sculptural painting, bas relief or assemblage. Garcia's art is dramatic and speaks to the heart and soul. His last one man show, titled "Love and Rust" at The Johnson Art Collection explored the trials and tribulations of lovers. His paintings are in galleries and homes in NY, Seattle, Phoenix and Los Angeles to name a few and have been featured on ABC's "Love Test" and The WB Networks "Mobile Disaster." Garcia, the son of a bullrider, raised in the rural outskirts of Santa Maria, California, attended the University of Santa Clara. He went on to obtain a Juris doctorate from UCLA. Garcia found the strict confines of law practice incompatible with the unbounded landscape of his youth and opted to compliment his academics studying fine arts at UCLA and Santa Monica College. A brief respite from law evolved into an extended pursuit and rediscovery of earlier creative impulses. Initiated by periods of travel and residency throughout Europe and Japan. He began redefining his career, finding success as an actor in New York in the late 80s and thereafter, progressed toward the canvas. "Painting gave me the freedom to discover, to emote, without needing the permission to do so," says Garcia. "There is theory and there are rules and guides, yet none are mutually exclusive or sacrosanct." Garcia has been making his home in the lush Ojai Valley for the past 9 years. Hank Garcia "It's kind of like building a house. I don't paint as much as I construct. I work in layers, each one capturing a moment in time along the journey, ultimately leading to art that is raw, honest and prepared to force a reaction," Hank says. The results are works that have a depth and dimension that cannot be replicated on canvas.