Mario Sanchez (artist)

Mario Sanchez (7 October 1908 – 28 April 2005) was a Cuban-American folk artiste from the Key West cigar-making neighborhood known as "Gato's Village". Self-taught, Sanchez began committed artistically in 1930 on media in the same way as paper bags and cedar wood boards. He would inherit specialize in bas further wood carvings that he would then paint beyond in flourishing colors, usually depicting scenes of secret Key West life. Some of his carvings have been valued at more than $50,000.

Described as a "memory artist" like Grandma Moses or Clementine Hunter, after earning a issue degree in stenography in 1925, Sanchez went to Ybor City in Tampa to be in as a clerk. In 1930, he was hired at the Monroe County Courthouse as a translator and stenographer, and suitably returned home to Key West. He explored his creative streak by writing comedic Spanish-language skits for the San Carlos playhouse and by whittling small fish native to the Florida Keys. This carving would carry higher than into his more lasting works of art, where he would carve scenes into wooden panels, then illustrate them with extremely detailed paint work.

He has been called the most important Cuban-American folk artiste of the 20th century.