Bio
For nearly thirty years, Alex Molina has had a passion for the arts. Alex was born in the Bronx of New York City. He was the youngest of three children raised by a single mother and lived in the projects while his mother worked hard handling two and three jobs at a time to make ends meet. In the midst of this hardship, Alex's mother took time out to sketch, and was Alex's first inspiration. When referring to his mother's artistic abilities, Alex recalls, "She had an amazing photographic memory. She would sketch us while we were outside playing. When we'd go inside, she'd continue to draw the scene exactly as it was played out," recalls Alex. "I would beg her to show me how she did it, and she would let me sketch in the corner of the drawing pad."
While in school, Alex began to associate with the wrong crowd. "I was always getting into trouble," Alex recounts. Things got so bad that he was expelled from his high school when he was caught with a small pocketknife on campus. Despite this unfortunate situation, Alex does recall some positive events during this time. The first was his inspirational art class with Ms. Marantz, where he would hang out when skipping other classes. There, Alex learned foundational techniques such as perspective, properly rendering figures and creating portraits. "One of the most important techniques I learned was to turn an image upside down to see if it was balanced and in proportion. It was amazing." The other positive influence at that time resulted from visiting Records N Stuff during lunch where local graffiti artist Seen worked. Alex began to emulate Seen's style of graffiti, tagging, and airbrushing tee shirts. "He was a sort of mentor for me" stated Alex.
Alex continued to develop his passion and talent for art and realized that nothing came easily- he was going to have to work for everything. Alex obtained his GED, enrolled into a college program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in textile design through the help of Ms. Marantz, studied Architectural Drafting at the Manhattan Technical Institute, and began a job in the Village at Unique Boutique, working with 11 other artists. The storefront had a window where Alex could "perform" for passersby as he engaged in his artwork. He created airbrush designs on clothing for music industry celebrities such as New Kids on the Block, Vanilla Ice, KRS 1, Special Ed, George Lamond, and Joey Kid just to name a few. Alex's reputation resulted in commissioned works for NYU fraternities, store fronts, portraits, and murals. Alex also learned the projected grid technique used by renowned photorealist artists such as Chuck Close and Ralph Goings. Alex has described this period as the best time of his life.
Some time passed and Alex found himself working odd jobs and only creating artwork in his spare time. He decided that a change was necessary and he relocated to Orlando, Florida to pursue a new direction. Alex found a job doing airbrush art, but unfortunately the company went out of business. Again, Alex was left to work miscellaneous jobs to pay the bills. He decided that education would advance his artistic and professional goals so he attended the International Academy of Design and Technology where he graduated with an Associate's degree in Computer Graphics with honors.
Today, Alex has developed skills with graphic design, web design, photography, drawing, and painting and creates pieces in the photorealism and abstract styles. Utilizing inspiration from loved ones, mentors, and artists such as Dali, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Alberto Vargas and Boris Vallejo , Alex has developed a style all his own. Despite difficult odds, Alex has fought for what he wanted and has found himself on the forefront of the contemporary scene, ready to breakout and make his name known.