Rodrigo Valles is a, NYC-based, self-taught artist. He taught himself to oil paint around the age of 26. His earliest artistic passion was a fascination with graffiti as a teen. Painting is not his only profession, though it is his passion. Rodrigo's works draw upon his life and experiences as a Mexican American, his love of the weathered urban patina and his love of nature. His backgrounds and abstracts are homages to visual layers created by time and decay in urban settings. His figurative heroes are references to his youth as a first generation Mexican American growing up in the Southwest. They pay tribute to the working class by way of pop icons and cultural references. Rodrigo aims to give you an excerpt of his life and perspective by way of reinterprested but recognizable visual imagery.