__NOTOC__ Daniel Martin Diaz is an American artist and musician based in Tucson, Arizona. His work has been exhibited worldwide and has been published in LA Times, NY Times, Juxtapoz, High Fructose, and Low Rider Magazine as well as in five books dedicated to his artwork. Diaz has designed artwork for large public art projects in the US and has won many awards such as a gold and platinum record designed for Atlantic Records. He is also involved in various musical projects. The band P.O.D. commissioned Diaz to design and paint the cover of their self-titled album Payable on Death. The album went gold in four weeks and caused a controversy across the country due to the cover artwork Diaz created. In 2010, he designed and painted the cover of

Good Charlotte Good Charlotte is an American rock band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. Since 2005, the band's lineup has consisted of twin brothers Joel Madden (lead vocals) and Benji Madden (guitar and vocals), Paul Thomas (bass), Billy Martin ...

's album,

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Influences

Diaz's influences include an eclectic mix from fantastical Mexican Retablos, mystical

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

offerings, the Early Netherlandish painters,

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

ornamentation, arcane religious sigils and medallions,

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world ...

, as well as symbolism culled from assorted

secret societies A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ...

such as The Rosicrucians.

Symbolism

Symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

ism plays a central role in Diaz’s art. It harks back to an earlier Christian culture where a mostly illiterate populace could read the paths leading to the world of the Spirit in the figures, colors, symbols, and gestures of the sculptures, paintings, and

mosaics A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

that adorned the portals, walls, and altar screens of the churches. Like his predecessors, he provides an artistic shorthand—one uniquely his—to bring his viewers to an inner, higher world.

Artist statement

"One of my earliest memories as a child was the way death and religion played an important role in my family’s life. My parents were born in Mexico with traditional beliefs, and their beliefs made their way into my subconscious. The fact that many of those beliefs seemed to render no logical explanation has also influenced me. These unanswered questions find a home in my work, which evokes the mystery, fear and irony of those vivid memories of my past. I do not claim to understand these questions. I just paint and let them reveal themselves to me." - Daniel Martin Diaz

Music

Diaz is a primary member of the bands Blind Divine (with singer

Paula Catherine Valencia Paula or PAULA may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Paula, in video game ''EarthBound'' * Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show'' * Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003 Film and television * ''Paula'' (1915 film), a si ...

); Crystal Radio (with singer Amelia Poe) and Trees Speak.

Published works

* ''Triginta Uno Dies: Thirty-One Drawings, Thirty-One Days.'' Los Angeles, California: La Luz de Jesus Press, 2004 * ''Mysterium Fidei''. Los Angeles, California: La Luz de Jesus Press, 2007 * ''Anatomy of Sorrow''. Los Angeles, California: La Luz de Jesus Press, 2011 * ''Soul of Science''. Tucson, Arizona: Mysticus Publishing, 2013 * ''Soul Machine''. Los Angeles, California: La Luz de Jesus Press, 2018

References

External links

* http://www.danielmartindiaz.com/ - Official website * http://www.blinddivine.com/ - Blind Divine * https://web.archive.org/web/20070613144344/http://beinart.org/artists/daniel-martin-diaz/ - Daniel Martin Diaz - Surreal Art Collective {{DEFAULTSORT:Diaz, Daniel Martin 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Artists from Tucson, Arizona 1967 births Living people Fantastic art American artists of Mexican descent 20th-century American male artists