The Sanlin Hive

WiL Vélez is a New Orleans-based, self-taught painter and multidisciplinary artist.

He was born in 1989, in Pearl River, MS, where he spent most of his formative childhood years honing his skills in drawing and painting. His earliest subjects were the plants and trees, wild and farm animals of the surrounding rural South Mississippi setting. Over the years his style has become increasingly versatile, developing to embrace abstraction and depict scenes directly inspired by dreams, nightmares, and personal life experiences. 

Since 2009, Vélez has been an active member of arts communities across the Gulf South. In 2020 his art history obsession led to a degree which was then followed by a barrage of professional work experience to include fine art conservation, curating, framing, creative marketing, web design and photography. As of May 2024, he has returned, full-time, to his foremost passion, painting. 

Now experimenting with the fluidity of water-based stains, Vélez often combines the medium with acrylics and sometimes inks to create expressive strokes that manifest city skylines and aerial Martian landscapes, dancing microorganisms, and uncanny dreamscapes. 

His latest series, Winged Rivers, blends aerial views of Southern Louisiana’s rivers with abstracted wing patterns inspired by native butterfly species.

WiL Vélez is an abstract painter whose work reflects a deep engagement with both his inner world and the rich cultural landscape that surrounds him. Using fluid acrylics and water-based stains, he explores texture, color, and movement through deliberate applications. His chosen surfaces—the grain of wood or the absorbent quality of paper—serve as integral elements in his visual storytelling.

Drawing from a diverse array of inspirations, Vélez’s art is a reflection of his lived experience. The natural beauty of the Gulf South, the layered architecture and rhythms of New Orleans, and the complex emotions of daily life all find their way into his compositions. Dreams play a significant role in shaping his visual language, lending a surreal or subconscious quality to many of his works. His paintings often feel like maps of emotional and sensory impressions—intuitive translations of fleeting thoughts or feelings into form and color.

Nature, too, is a recurring presence in Vélez’s work. Whether through abstracted insect wings or cartographic motifs, he strives to convey a sense of organic vitality. Ultimately, Vélez’s practice is one of exploration and revelation. His paintings serve as portals into a deeply personal yet universally resonant real– inviting viewers to bring their own experiences and interpretations into conversation with his art.