Justin Menendez

Process

My process is improvised. I don't plan a painting; I find it.

Every work moves from paint, through the digital, and back into paint. Here is how one piece, Opterotic, was made.

  1. The original acrylic painting: thick white, pink and yellow strokes crossing over a lavender ground

    01

    Paint

    Each work begins as an improvised acrylic painting on canvas. I don't plan the image. I find it as I paint.

  2. The same canvas after the painting is wiped away: smeared grey and violet residue

    02

    Wipe away

    I photograph the painting, then wipe it away. The original now exists only as a photograph, and what's left on the canvas becomes the ground for the next painting.

  3. An in-between digital stage of the image: colors pushed to hot pink, yellow and deep blueAnother digital version of the same image: saturated magenta, yellow and white strokes over bright blue
    Two stages of many

    03

    Deconstruct

    I deconstruct the photograph digitally, pushing color, contrast and light far past their normal limits. The image passes through many versions before one settles.

  4. Opterotic installed on a wall: the finished aluminum panel with hand-painted acrylic, signed Menendez
    Opterotic, 2026
    Acrylic and sublimated dye on aluminum
    40 × 30 in. Unique

    04

    Rematerialize

    I bring the new image back onto aluminum with dye, then paint back into it by hand with acrylic. Each piece is a unique, one-of-one object.

Paint, to digital, and back to paint.

View the work