Juan Chavez
Contemporary abstract art exploring memory + emotion + experimentation + and risk
Plus shipping and handling
Mixed media
18×18 inches
Mind Friction was created through a layered, intuitive process that balances calm and tension. Working in acrylic, I built the surface slowly, adding, scraping, and returning to areas until each mark felt deliberate but unforced.
The painting captures the quiet space between thought and action, that focused calm when I pause before making the next move. Each texture and color shift reflects that mental dialogue between risk and restraint, control and instinct.
18×18 inches
Acrylic on canvas
“Scorched by the Torch”
No matter the block or spot,
it’s always hot.
Day or night,
no relief in sight.
I’m losing this fight.
The final sum. That was gruesome.
Summer makes way for autumn.
Temps drop from top to bottom.
Now nature paints a new picture,
signs its signature.
Can’t wait for warmer days,
rays and no more grays.
Thoughts recycle,
cycling like the wheels of a bicycle.
Mind Friction
Scorched By the Torch
Plus shipping and handling
Mixed media
18×18 inches
Our lives move like water, sometimes calm and clear, sometimes turbulent and dark.
Currents began as a way to paint that movement: the constant flow of time, memory, and emotion that shapes who we are.
The painting is built in layers, like the stories we carry. Some are buried deep, moments we’d rather forget or have outgrown and others rise to the surface, shining through with color and light. The balance between those layers is what makes the work feel alive.
The bright areas represent what’s good and enduring: the love, the clarity, the hope that keeps us moving. The darker passages hold what’s been lost, people, places, and moments that still leave traces. Together, they form the rhythm of a life, one that’s never only smooth or only rough, but always a mix of both.
When I paint, I’m not trying to erase the past, but to give it form, to show how even our scars become part of the beauty we carry. The light in this painting doesn’t ignore the dark, it grows from it.
That’s what Currents means to me: the strength to keep moving forward, shaped by everything that came before
Thousands of Decisions Made
Currents
Plus Shipping and Handling
Mixed media
18×18 inches
Most people don’t know this painting is influenced by J.K. Kennedy’s poem Experiments.
The poem recalls messy childhood curiosity, mud, fireflies, and a disregard for results and that same energy lives here.
Fragments of cardboard, twine, paint skins, and paper were once discarded. Now they’re pressed into a unified surface that carries memory, wonder, and transformation.
This is not just a painting. It’s an artifact of what remains after experiments a singular work, offered only once.
EXPERIMENTS
When I was small,
I used to conduct
all sorts of messy experiments.
They usually involved
mud and maybe a
firefly or two.
Years later,
Im working on achieving
that same level of wonder
and
blatant disregard
for results.
J. K. Kennedy
Clumsy Beauty: Poems for Hearing the
"I Love You" in Everything
Every effort has been made to show this piece as true to life as possible. Please note that variations in lighting and screens may affect how the colors appear.
Studio Time
Strata I
