Be A Maverick. The University of Texas at Arlington
Artistic rewards
For Benito Huerta, being an artist is not a career but a lifestyle.
“Art is about risk,” he says. “A life in the arts is risky, so it’s not for everyone. But for those who believe in their talent, their ideas and persist in being an artist, it is a rewarding lifestyle.”
It’s an idea he relays to his students. As an associate professor in the Art and Art History Department, he encourages them to be diligent because “the more you work, the more ideas are generated from that work.” Guiding students on their artistic paths helps him to formalize his own ideas.
In addition to teaching, Huerta oversees various artistic projects. He is the director of The Gallery at UT Arlington, as well as the co-founder and director emeritus of the contemporary art journal ArtLies. He has organized traveling surveys of art legends such as Luis Jimenez, Mel Chin and Celia Alvarez Munoz.
Huerta still creates his own art, which isn’t restricted to painting. He has done everything from public art, sculpture, artists’ books, ceramics, drawing, prints and even some writing.
Last year, he expanded his artistic horizons even further when he completed a terrazzo floor design for Skylink’s International Terminal at DFW International Airport. The floor was composed of two variations of one of Huerta’s designs, with each floor measuring 30 feet x 300 feet. The experience was quite a stretch for him; the largest painting he had ever created was 10 feet x 14 feet.
He has the kind of long, substantiated career that burgeoning artists crave. His work is in exhibitions, museums and corporate collections in Texas and throughout the nation. In 2007, “Soundings: Benito Huerta, 1992-2005,” a 13-year survey of his work, will be relocated from its current home at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi to the El Paso Museum of Art. He received the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art’s 2002 Artist Legend of the Year Award.
What inspires a man who himself is inspirational? Huerta believes that when it comes to being influenced, anything goes.
“Good ideas and good work from any source inspire me,” he said. “Everything influences your work, whether you are conscious of it or not.”
Once he has an idea, he sets out to create it. It’s a fearless attitude from an artist who wishes to have no regrets.