DAPPERDAN

My name is Benjamin Daniel Quinones, I was born in 1979 in Santurse, Puerto Rico. I have been submerged in art for as long as I can remember. My mother surrounded me with art at an early age. She painted and did crafts as I was growing up and sold her pieces on the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We later moved to Houston, Texas when I was very young. My mother kept my interest in art while I was growing up. This is to whom I owe my talents to. During my early youth at schools, I received many awards for my work. I won an award receiving critical acclaim from the state capital of Texas for one of my pieces which hung in the capital for many months. I was named "Artist of the Year" during my junior and senior years in high school. Also, while attending high school, my work was put on display year around for the whole school to see. I was published in the school newspaper for regards of my artistic abilities and my accomplishments as an artist in my school. I won a competition held at my high school for an animal book cover and it went in to mass production. Later, I attended college for a year and a half at The Art Institute of Houston studying graphic design and soon after, decided that I wanted to expand my knowledge in art in a different state. I felt hindered and needed a new outlet in which my creative process as a designer and painter could grow. I moved to Boston and studied painting while working at the museum of Fine Arts in Boston. My talent was called upon and I was commissioned by the Emerson Majestic Theater to paint a back drop for the play "Moses". I also performed and danced for the theatrical event. In addition, I helped troubled youth with other artists displaying our arts through words, art, and dancing in hopes that they would find these elements as an outlet rather than crime. After living in Boston for a year, I moved to New York and attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan to study graphic design. My painting was picked to represent the School of Visual Arts and hung in a gallery. During the summer break I visited Florence, Italy and submerged myself in the Florentine style of art. I studied the ways of the masters in hopes of gaining more knowledge of art and its history as a whole. After attending the School of Visual Arts for a year I moved to San Francisco and was accepted to the Academy of Art San Francisco, but soon realized that I could accomplish more by living closer to Los Angeles, California so moved to Huntington Beach and later received a job as an apparel designer for DC Shoes Inc. While moving and attending schools in these different places I also managed to develop and own my own companies Poabdesign.com and Poabstyle an apparel division of paobdesign.com. I have worked with many artist clubs and companies from Houston, New York, Boston and California. I helped in developing CD covers, posters, logos brochures, flyers, corporate identification, etc. for all my clients. I also sell and distribute t-Shirts by poabstyle to local clubs and people through the internet. With all my experience I still have much more to learn. I feel that my art work has developed a feel of its own due to all the different experiences I have encountered living in a variety of environments. I have learned from all artists like cartoonists, graffiti artists, classical, modern and the list goes on. I will be attending a school in California after gaining residence. I will be studying fine arts and animation when the time comes. I want to be able to keep on the move and study art to expand my growth as an artist.