TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Creative Retirement

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: January 2, 2009

WESLEY CHAPEL - When he was 4, John Martinez took a pencil in his tiny hand and sketched the then-famous comic book character Abie Kabibble on a sheet of paper.

By the looks of his Wesley Chapel home, you'd think Martinez, 86, hasn't put down a pencil, sketch pad or some other artistic implement since.

The walls are filled with brightly colored paintings, mostly abstract, and cut-paper works arranged to approximate flying objects, presumably birds.

Shelves are topped by bronze-painted sculptures, including a detailed rendering of a boxer and an American Indian with wind-blown hair.

Even the barstools in his kitchen have ignited Martinez' creative drive; each is painted in different designs and various colors, even the one with the spinning seat.

Given the array of avenues Martinez has explored, his artistic ideology shouldn't come as a surprise.

"You can't pin me down," he said. "I don't want to be identified with one thing. It's more fun to change mediums and attitudes."

That philosophy, however, is a relatively new one for Martinez, who didn't start creating artwork for at least an hour a day until he retired more than 20 years ago.

A New York native, Martinez is the son of a Puerto Rican father and Gibraltarian mother. At 11, he produced a watercolor version of Thomas Gainsborough's 1770 painting "The Blue Boy," after which a teacher urged his mother to send him to art school.

It wasn't to be.

As a young man he realized the practicality of the steady paychecks and retirement plan offered by Time Inc., which he joined in 1952. There, he worked as a magazine and book designer in several divisions, including Life and Fortune magazines, Time-Life Records and Time-Life Books, where he designed the well-known series "This Fabulous Century."

He later worked for Home Box Office as a design director in the promotions department. At HBO, he met his wife Mary Jane, known to most as M.J. After he retired, the couple moved to New Mexico, where his interest in producing art was rekindled.

Since then, his mediums have become as varied as the colors in a box of crayons.

Emerging from a Florida room, Mary Jane held a stone rubbing he made of a grave marker they found out west. Inscribed were the words:

"In memory of Joseph Leckey Aged 57 years" and "Julien Tissere aged 42 years."

The stone said Leckey and Tissere were "Murdered at their house in the southern portion of Santa Fe Co. March 4, 1887."

The marker was "erected by their sorrowing relatives."

"I looked it up on microfiche," she said. "As best we could piece together, it sounded like there were sheep guys and cattle guys, and they didn't always get along. Apparently, Leckey and Tissere were sheep guys."

The stone rubbing reveals not only a minute part of one western family's tragic story, but also the crumbling nature of the aging gravestone, which seems to be missing large chunks.

"I never know what he's going to do next," Mary Jane said of her husband's art.

Now living in a gated Meadow Pointe community, Martinez has had his work exhibited at Horizon Line Gallery in Temple Terrace, and he recently joined the North Tampa Art League.

"They work hard at keeping up to date with the artists and supporting the artists in the area," Mary Jane Martinez said.

Meanwhile, John Martinez will continue creating.

On a wall near a bathroom in his practically dirt-free home, he pointed to a hanging abstract painting he titled "Shangri La."

It was inspired by "kind of a mystical situation," Martinez said with a laugh.

"I like expanding myself" through art, he said. "My work at Time was much more precise.

"This is freer."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613. Keyword: Martinez Art, for more photos of paintings and sculptures by John Martinez.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT