Artist and instructor Eugene Rodriguez showcased “Picturing History: Lights, Darks, Cameras and ACTION!” during an Artist Talk in the Euphrat Museum at De Anza College. 

Rodriguez mixed sarcasm and politics into many of his oil paintings, digital prints, and his film noir. 

His presentation was in connection with National Transgender Remembrance Day. 

“A lot of my work deals with sexuality and LGBTQ issues,” Rodriguez said.

Diana Argabrite, director of arts and schools and also gallery director, described the event as an illumination of history. 

“He educates the viewer by studying the past,” she said. “He is able to work in different media outlets and teaches art history in a way you may not know.”

Rodriguez combined Louis Armstrong and Jason Pollock into an oil painting to educate his viewers of the unequal opportunities Americans were faced with in reference to Brown v Board of Education, in a piece titled “How to Rage a Cold War.” Brown v Board  of Education was a Supreme Court case that eventually determined it was unconstitutional to segregate black and white students into separate public schools.

Rodriguez gave a brief history lesson about Mexico’s campaign to be a part of the United States against the Europeans by explaining an oil painting of Fidel Castro he called “Project Pedro.”

War and capitalism in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s is the major theme in his artwork. In his paintings, Rodriguez uses his family as a centerpiece. He often portrays his mother and father (of a sharecropper background) in an outraged state of their modern surroundings.

Rodriguez captured the theme of masculinity and sexuality by portraying his brother as a sexually overcharged teenage hippie in a painting “Play It Boy.”

Christina Dao, 21, a graphics designer major at De Anza, is enrolled in Rodriguez’s intermediate drawing class. She described how contemporary his art is. 

“He focuses on perspectives of the world around him and applies it to a personal level as well,” she said. “He gives context , and not just narrative of history elements.”

“Hide and Peek” is a painting about Andy Warhol, being gay, and drag queens. Rodriguez explained how gay identity affected artist Andy Warhol in the 1960s.  

In his black and white film noir, “Remote Control,” Rodriguez pulled from his inspiration of Charlie Chaplin and late TV sitcom show “Leave it to Beaver.” 

“I also use film because there are a lot of things I wanted to say that paintings cannot say,” Rodriguez said.

“Lights, Darks, Cameras and ACTION!” is a project Rodriguez has been working on for two years.

For students undecided about which classes to take for the Winter quarter, Diane Argabrite advises, “All students should take an art class with instructor Rodriguez. He is an absolute treasure.”