Rafael Blanco - Captain Elmhurst

Hello. I'm Raphael Blanco, a visual artist originally from Spain, living in the United States, I have always been fascinated with painting and how some pigment on a canvas could express and evoke so many realities and emotions. 

I was incredibly lucky to grow up in Madrid, the capital of Spain, with some of the most impressive art works and museums around the world. Thanks to my mother, who took me to these art museums often, I became exposed at a very early age to all the great Spanish masters like Elasque Goya, Miro, Dali and Picasso, among many others. 

Instead of having posters of soccer players in my room, like every other Spanish dead, I had prints of Renaissance and Baroque masterworks. As a result, I became classically trained in the studio and painted professionally, exhibiting in galleries and museums until I had my first encounter with public art in 2014. 

Before this day, I have always been fascinated with murals and large scale works, but it never crossed my mind to attempt one, since it took me months to finish a single painting inside the studio. However, in 2014, I was invited as one of the seven artists working side by side at a 24 hours mural marathon in Reno, Nevada. 

Each of us had to complete a large scale mural in less than a day. At the beginning, I was timid and self conscious of being watched, but at some point, I was able to let those feelings go. I had no time to think, nor to rest, nor to cover the mistakes. 

I simply had to keep painting. I worked for 24 hours straight under the pressure of the clock, and even though this experience was as far as possible from my studio practice, somehow it was liberating. 

Since that day, I have become fascinated with the amazing potential of public art. For the superhero project, I decided to create Captain Elmhurst. It is a piece that pays homage to Captain America, the city of Elmhurst and Elmhurst university, where I currently teach drawing, painting and art history. 

Since the development of Hollywood, american culture has had a huge impact in the rest of the world through movies. And as a result, everyone knows and has an opinion about the US. It definitely had an impact on me as a kid growing, watching Superman, saving the world. 

Superhero movies create an outlet to our daily life problems. And who is better than Captain America to represent the values of the American culture? During my first time in the US. Like almost every foreign person I know, I had a huge culture shock. 

One tends to know better his or her culture when he's able to compare it to something else. In my case, after so many years living in the United States, I still myself. I still find myself comparing cultures on a daily basis. 

I will always have an accent, a reminder I was born somewhere else. Painting myself as Captain Elmhurst is an attempt to visualize, in a humorous way, my struggle to assimilate to the American culture. 

Thank you.