Bernie Granados Jr.   

Artist's Biography

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Bernie Granados, Jr. is a multi-talented artist who works in a wide variety of mediums, including embossed acrylic paintings, watercolor, Prismacolor pencil, pen and ink drawings, wood carvings, ceramic, and bronze. Drawing from his Apache and Zacatec roots, Mr. Granados produces paintings, sculptures, masks, prints, and miniatures featuring beautiful images of horses, buffalo, and ancient ancestral figures inspired by by visions and cave art throughout America. He finds inspiration in Nature’s force and beauty, his smarter-than-human quarter horses, his fellow artists, and his love and respect for the Creator.

"Spirit Horse Cave" 40' cave installation, designed by the artist and completed with the help of the intrepid staff and volunteers of the Southwest Museum. The exhibition, "Spirit Horses", curated by Dr. Kathy Whittaker, was up for over 2 years.

The "Spirit Horses" Mural. in the Sprague Auditorium. The horse-images are 24" and 36" long.

As a youth he derived inspiration from the old and contemporary masters, spending much time in art galleries and museums and enjoying time in the presence of these celebrated pieces of art history.

Mr. Granados is a gifted teacher who headed the Fine Arts Department of the Intertribal Pre-University Summer Program at University of California, Irvine and taught at the High School of the Arts in Los Angeles. He is listed in the Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Bernie was one of the featured artists in the LACMA Exhibition "Native Artists for the 21^st. Century." He created the "MADCOWpony" for Horsepower New Mexico’s "Trail of Painted Ponies."

He has worked in the film industry for 21 years and maintains a "fine-arts-for-motion-pictures" website, clearedart.com, that features fine arts commissions and rentals, for the industry. Granados’ works are collected by such notables as Ben Kingsley, Dustin Hoffman, and Ted Turner. His artworks have been used in such shows as "The Native Americans", "Highway to Heaven", "Gabriel’s Fire", "Who’s Harry Crumb?", "Evolution", "CSI", and many more.

Today Mr. Granados’ ongoing passion is helping Native youth cultivate their artistic talent and knowledge. He was an Artist in Residence at the Southwest Museum and assisted the Museum in developing the "Native Mentors" program which has provided an educational opportunity for Native youths to learn more about the arts from the Native professionals in the community. This curriculum is now available for tribes to develop native youth’s artistic techniques at the professional level, http://nativementors.com. Mr. Granados currently is a Board Member, and on the faculty, of the San Joaquin River Intertribal Heritage Educational Corporation, where he also shares, through teaching, his knowledge and talent.