Jesús Moroles

In boyhood and young adult life, Jesús Moroles worked during the summers with an uncle in Rockport, Texas, where he gained a strong foundation in stonemasonry. A series of courses taken at North Texas State University strengthened these skills. In 1978–1979 Moroles apprenticed under Luis Jiménez, a famous figurative sculptor. During 1979–1980 the artist worked in Pietrasanta, Italy. On his return to Texas, Moroles started producing monumental granite sculpture for which he is well known today.

Smithsonian American Art Museum curatorial files (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2005)

As a college student in North Texas, Jesús Moroles tried to carve granite with a hammer and chisel. After only thirty minutes, he recalls, "The stone took me over. It was so hard it barely showed what I had done to it . . . It controlled me. I fell in love with it." He began sculpting exclusively in granite, using a diamond-edged electrical saw capable of "tearing" the stone. Moroles went on to establish one of the largest stone-carving workshops in the country, which he runs with the help of his father, brother, and sister. In 2001, Moroles began to strike his sculptures, sometimes with batons, sometimes with his hands or his feet, creating a type of music one audience member called "an unearthly composition . . . that recalled the effect of the . . . Orient" (Adlmann, Moroles, 2003).