Muralist Joset Medina: creating artwork for the LGBT community and beyond

Joset Medina’s skill has been seen in South America, Europe, and the United States. Craft is his love. Born in Venezuela, Medina has lived in Panama, Spain, and then San Francisco. In all the areas he’s lived, he’s worked as an engineer while developing a subsequent career as an artist. As an engineer, he has worked in commercial and residential jobs. As an artist, he creates designs, paintings, and murals.

“I’ve been drawing and painting for as long as I may remember,” Medina said in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “As a child, I used to create designs and pictures of my community, particularly since I grew up surrounded by people who were my first content. I began addressing their sexual relationship through my arts.”

Medina recalls being a nervous child. High school wasn’t easy for him. When he was bullied by some of his colleagues, he responded by making interesting pictures of them, exaggerating their ugly features in order to manage and defend himself.

“Painting and drawing are like counseling for me,” he said. “I love channeling my personal experience into my skill. It’s like a way to grow and learn from life’s difficulties. I get a lot of inspiration from nature, my walks, and particularly the powerful people in my life. Although, since tying the knot, and my relationship with my father, I’ve started incorporating more adult themes into my work.”

Bay Area flexibility

While living in Panama, Medina worked for a global infrastructure company based in Southern California. He traveled quite a bit for labor, and San Francisco was generally high on his list of places he wanted to visit. He eventually made his way around and instantly fell in love with the town. He was enchanted by the liberty he felt around after seeing men holding hands and kissing on the street. It was a pleasant change from Panama and Venezuela, where there is still a great deal of discrimination against LGBT people.

Artist Joset Medina with ‘Waves,’ one of his commissioned home murals (photo: Joset Medina)

While in San Francisco, he met an interior designer with whom he clicked quickly. They agreed to work together, though that had to be put on a temporary hold while he worked towards getting an O1 (extraordinary abilities) visa. Once that was approved, he returned to San Francisco and has been here ever since.

He’s kept active. Last month he created “Sunset Caress,” a mural painted in the garden of a gay couple in Oakland who wanted to work with an LGBTQ actor and support the community. They were looking to create a painting as the principal featured craft piece on their history wall. Medina said that he couldn’t show the woman’s titles as they prefer to remain secret.

“What I wanted to convey was largely based on conversations with the users,” he said. “They expressed a desire for me to use elements from my past artworks into the style, such as the feminine subject, vivid colors, and the wavy, organic shapes of my line work, all tied to their landscape design.”

The implementation of the painting took Medina about sixteen weeks.

“I worked on vacation since my infrastructure work keeps me occupied during the weekdays, but I’d suggest that it took me eight vacation total,” he said. “My husband Robert (Wiesner) was a huge help during this time. He frequently assists me with painting my artworks when he’s not working. Moreover, my pal Alex helped me color on a few days while well. When I get assistants or get somebody, I frequently ask them to help with prepping the mural and painting the big straight area, so I can concentrate on the extensive line work, which tends to take me more time.”

Artist Joset Medina (photo: Robert Wiesner)

Designing vision

Medina’s latest project is a mural for a kid’s room in San Francisco, commissioned by the children’s parents. For this project, he is collaborating with the parent’s interior designer.

“They were looking for a mural that they could keep for several years, not just for the early age of their kids,” he said. “I would say they were looking for something timeless, playful, dynamic, with organic shapes that relate to natural elements or a landscape.”

His approach to this project is unique and is keeping in step with what the parents want.

“I’ve approached this project with both an artist and an interior designer mindset because the mural design has been coordinated with the elements that the client’s interior designer team has already placed there,” he said. “The millwork elements, line work, and colors are integrated with the mural. I can’t give more details until the project is complete.”

Since moving to San Francisco, Medina has established a strong bond with the LGBT community. However, as an architect and an artist, he maintains a vision that goes further than any one specific community.

“I believe that by stepping out of my comfort zones, working with different people, communities, and even businesses, I can continue to grow and learn.”