The Skunk in Love with the Moon
Version by María Cristina Brusca and Tona Wilson.
From the book When Jaguars Ate the Moon. Henry Holt, New York.
Crédito de fotos / Photo credits: Joan Belmar
Artista / Artist: Joan Belmar
Curadora / Curator: Elisa Pritzker
Flamingos / From Perspectives series, 2021
Acrylic and ink on paper, 25 x 25 x 1.5 in. framed
ARUP Permanent Collection
Amazonas / From Perspectives series, 2021
Acrylic and ink on paper, 25 x 25 x 1.5 in. framed
Joan Belmar was born in Santiago, Chile in 1970. He left Chile for Spain at the age of 24. He began painting professionally in Spain, using the Catalan name Joan for his first name John. He came to Washington, D.C. four years later in 1999, was granted permanent residency in the U.S. based on extraordinary artistic merit in 2003 and became a citizen in 2010.
The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities recognized him with an Artist Fellowship Program grant in 2009, and in 2011 he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD. He is a two-time recipient of the Maryland Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in Visual Arts: Painting, in 2010 and 2013. In 2016 he won first place, for best Original Work in the prestigious Osten Biennial of Drawing in Macedonia, and in 2020 he was granted with the CSA grant by the Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, New York. Belmar’s work is part of many private and public collections.