JOLU: EN LAS HUELLAS DE AMARINGO

José Luis Vásquez Gonzales, known artistically as JoLu Amaringo, was born in the Cradle of Art on December 5, 1991, in the Peruvian jungle called Pucallpa, the date on which his famous grandfather, the International Amazonian Visionary Painter Pablo Amaringo was flying to Japan for an exhibition of his Visionary Art.

During his childhood and adolescence, JoLu spent time at his grandfather Pablo Amaringo’s house with his father Juan Vásquez Amaringo and his mother Lidia Gonzales Laulate who all told infinite stories lived by them in the Peruvian Amazon– stories and experiences that were heard in frequent meetings around a table at mealtime, so he then absorbed his love for the Art of Painting.

At the age of six, he began to transfer his inspiration to paper and canvas using the Tempera and Acrylic technique.  In the first years of his life until 2015, he did not paint Visions of Ayahuasca, but rather Amazonian Landscapes, which are now called “Neo-Amazonian” style and which is now the style of the USKO-AYAR Amazonian Painting School, characterized and identified by recreating the nature, flora, fauna, and customs of the Peruvian Amazon in a way minutely detailed.

In 2016 he made his first Amazonian Visionary Art Mural on canvas, titled: “Spiritual Temple”, which he did it at the request of a friend who explained and told him about his experience with Ayahuasca and asked him to capture it on a canvas. In this way, his art became more linked to the mother plant. So JoLu drank, studied, and analyzed in depth about the traditional Amazonian ancestral medicine Ayahuasca, remembering the teachings of his grandfather Pablo Amaringo who had already passed away. Thus began his vocation for painting the Ayahuasca Visions Paintings, capturing his own experiences on canvas, bywhich JoLu points out that his works are not only ornamental or for decoration but also transmit the healing message of the Mother Ayahuasca plant.

Currently in his Amazon Art Gallery of Pucallpa in Peru, called: “JOLU AMARINGO Amazonian Art Gallery”, managed by his wife Mary Luz Zumaeta Mangia, JoLu’s Amazonian Pictorial Art is promoted. You can also find it on his Facebook and Instagram pages, having approximately 40 works on permanent display. He has also sold his works to private collectors from Germany, the United States, Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico, Bolivia, and Russia.

JoLu confesses to us that everything he learned about Ayahuasca is thanks to his grandfather Pablo Amaringo. He assures us that he will continue painting throughout his life, emphasizing that the most important thing in his artistic career is to continue the legacy of his grandfather Pablo Amaringo.