Robert Gonzales is a painter and graphic artist who has a focus on animation, motion graphics and narrative storytelling. His work is rooted in the regional humor of San Antonio and South Texas. He has produced animations for TruTV, Broadway Video and local networks. He’s won numerous awards for his short films, including San Antonio Film Festival’s Best Animated Short, Texas Monthly Where I’m From Short Film Contest and the San Antonio OCA’s Neighborhood Film Project. As a motion graphic artist, he’s worked with many cultural organizations, including the Blue Star Contemporary, the Witte Museum and the Institute of Texan Cultures. He lives in San Antonio with his wife Erica, their son and three dogs.
I make humorous cartoons that take place in the unique cultural mix of San Antonio and reflect its specific regional humor and sensibilities. I’ve exhibited as a painter while working as a graphic designer, but my mind opened as I discovered the possibilities that exist within animation. There is a strain of my animated collage work that I still exhibit that is surrealist and expresses my art-ier impulses, but what I’ve devoted most of my attention to is narrative storytelling. Within the narrative storytelling possibilities in animation I can explore the things that really engage me. Awkward human interaction. The frustrating gaps between expectation and reality. All using the specific regional humor of South Texas and the shared cultural language of television cartoons.