Paul Medina
born 1951, Oklahoma City, OK
Paul is a self-taught artist. He learned his craft by trial and error. He remembers always being interested in making little sculptures out of rocks and twigs and flattened bottle caps and painting pictures with the limited paint and paper his mother provided. Paul has made objects for over 50 years.
As a mixed media artist who works in series, Paul enjoys the challenge of finding the right combination of materials, often unconventional, that best express his lifelong endeavor to capture human truths, emotions, and experiences.
An example of the introspective content in his work is found in his clay Amulet series. He created it during a period of great personal loss: Both of his parents, his younger brother, and a favorite cousin died within two years’ time. It was important to Paul to memorialize his family’s passing. In so doing, he healed himself. While the amulets, at first, were more a marker indicating major loss, they became markers that could acknowledge the remembrance of any significant life experience.
Paul also created an art-based mentoring program for at risk children. It’s now over 25 years old and funded by The Arts Council of Oklahoma City.
