Lorenzo Foncerrada's
"La Soldadera" is a wooden scupture 32 " in height and 10" in width.
“This Woman Soldier represents an ‘Adelita’ the valiant volunteer fighters that accompanied the men fighting in the Mexican Revolution (circa 1910-1920). This particular female soldier, with her tall cone sombrero, gun belts, represents those who accompanied the Zapatista Armies of southern Mexico. These heroic women represent the struggle for their land, families and political freedom, a process started by the Mexican Revolution, which continues to the present.
‘LA SOLDADERA’, the standing sentinel, was hand carved in a single piece of ash wood on a base decorated with carvings representing the ancient carvings of that region of Mexico.”
"I approach a dimensional piece as an effort to take the material to it's highest and best expression… A commitment to employ the fullest craft, detail and display of the inherent beauty of my medium." - Lorenzo Foncerrada
A long-time Californian, Lorenzo Foncerrada, at age 6, moved with his family to San Diego from Guadalajara, Mexico. As a young man, Lorenzo was influenced by his father Miguel Foncerrada, who studied in Mexico with an elite group of internationally famous Artist Friends from the Mexican artistic revolution period of the1920s: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Tina Modotti, Edward Weston, Jean Charlot, Donal Hord. This legacy in art led to Lorenzo’s interest in pursuing and participating in creative work.
Known as "Fonce" to his friends, he attended local schools and graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in mathematics and a minor in art, excelling in pottery, furniture design and sculpture.
Although employed after college as a mathematician in the Space Program, his interest in design, art, sculpture and woodworking remained keen. So it was natural, when he completed his overseas tour as an Air Force Captain, for him to pursue a livelihood in the field of design. He established a furniture design business where he designed and made custom decorative and commercial projects, and opened an Imports shop in Old Town State Park, selling crafts and an art gallery where he and other Artisans produced and sold original work.
In the 1970's Fonce worked at Foodmaker Inc. (Jack-in-the Box restaurants), heading the Design & Graphics department, working on artwork, logos, and restaurant Interiors.
From 1979 to the 1990s, he was design principal of Foncerrada Design Associates, involved in a myriad of corporate image and interior design projects. Fonce’s design and art have been featured in the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine, American Home Magazine, California Redwood Magazine, San Diego Home and Garden Magazine, and Fine Woodworking Magazine, among others.
He is a past member of the Sign Advisory Committee for the San Diego Community Colleges, and past president or the San Diego Communicating Arts Group. In 1988, as member in the San Diego Chapter of the International Society of Interior Designers, he received the chapter's Distinguished Member Award.
A Member of SDMAAG, San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association, and San Diego Sculptors Guild, he has participated in, and won awards in the prestigious Design-In-Wood and the FineArt Shows at the Annual Del Mar Fair.
Recent Commissions include Hindu Dancers, Eight gilded ‘Monkey Kings', Large Doors, Navy Aircraft-Carriers, Baroque Panels, Gothic Dragons and Decorative Bronzes.
In recent years he concentrated on traveling, buying woodcarvings for his Enchanted Woods of Old Town. He sold the store a couple of years ago, to concentrate full time on his sculpture.
He now works at his 100-year-old home/studio, that he and his artist-wife, Nancie, are continuously renovating.
