Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Marcos J. De Jesús Carrión holds a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Graphic Arts with a minor in Sculpture, Ceramics, and Art Education from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, San Germán Campus. He earned an MFA with a concentration in Printmaking from the same institution. From 2015 to 2023, he taught in the Department of Graphic Arts at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico. He currently teaches at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo. His work focuses on community-based arts education, particularly handmade paper and printmaking. He has led workshops for various nonprofit and cultural organizations throughout the island. De Jesús Carrión has exhibited locally and internationally, including at the University of Granada (Spain), Museo de Las Américas (Puerto Rico), Global Print (Portugal), and the N-E International Contemporary Engraving Biennial (Romania).

Artist Statement

My artistic practice is rooted in the exploration of printmaking, drawing, memory, and time. Printmaking is not only my foundation, but also a lens through which I engage with other mediums and concepts. It offers a unique space for repetition, reflection, and experimentation. I approach the plate as a site of convergence: the needle, and the brush becomes tools for drawing, carving, and painting. Line is central, pure, deliberate, and shared across media. Paper serves not just as support but as a conceptual space. Through silk aquatint, I pursue painterly textures within the printed image. Once printed, the paper often returns to the plastic plate, continuing the cycle of construction and transformation that defines my visual language.