(El Salvador) Esael Araujo was born in 1964. He grew up in the city of Mexicanos. His mother Otilia was very supportive of her children and allowed Esael to maintain the desire and enthusiasm to become a great artist. She would work hard to buy him paint brushes and paints. Thanks to this effort, Esael won his first competition at the age of 10. The price was a towel of multiple colors, a poetry book by Claudia Lars and a set of water paint.

The political unrest and civil war that ensued during the late seventies and throughout the eighties helped shape the contents of his work. One can often see the desire to find peace in a world of chaos expressed sometimes as fantasy elements embedded in real life scenes. This he describes as Magical Realism.

He is a founding member of "Asociación de Artistas Plásticos de El Salvador" (Association of Plastic Artists of El Salvador) but moved out of El Salvador in 2002. His goal is to learn about different cultures, their past, present and future to stimulate his creativity in different directions. He currently resides in Europe (Barcelona, Spain most recently) but his heart never left his home country of El Salvador. My favorite quote from Esael about El Salvador is as follows:

" Como no ser artista en esta tierra, como no ser creativo, donde tambien el sol, el mar, la tierra, donde la sonrisa, el amor, el abrazo, la esperanza aun esta como presente, no puedo decirte como y cuando volveré, solo decirte que nunca me he marchado."

His International Exhibitions are:

• Sweden and Denmark
• Medborgerhuset Blagarden, Denmark
• "Qult" Gallery Cafe, Sweden
• Studienforbundet, Sweden
• Studienframjandet, Sweden
• 1 9 9 1 Vuxenkolan, Sweden
• Asiatisches Institut Gallery, Graz, Austria
• "Atrium Gallery", London, England
• Gallery de Vere Park Hotel, London, England
• Gallery Van Gogh, Centre Cultural de Mant de Marsan, France
• "Le Cafe Tiers Gallery", Canada
• "The Drysdale Gallery", Tegucigalpa. Honduras
• Galeria Forma, Argentina
• 1 9 9 4 "Primer Festival Cultural Turistico Gastronomico", hotel Eurobuilding, Caracas, Venezuela.
• "Washi Art association", Tokyo, Japan
• "El Salvador Pinta", Eastern Plaza Hotel, Taiwan
• Many others...