Santa Rosa, California

 Paul Tapia was born in San Francisco on August 14, 1940. He is of Spanish, German and Greek descent. Tapia's most enjoyable pastimes include traveling the world with his art, doing professional archeology, the San Francisco 49ers and being alone with his Julie.

Paul Tapia is among the greatest living abstract artists in the world today. Some collectors describe his work as forceful or powerful, while others allude to the ethereal, almost self-illuminating quality of the work. For 25 years Tapia has used the slogan Paul Tapia paints abstracts...for people who don't like abstracts. This evolved as a result of many staunch traditionalists making statements such as "I usually don't like abstracts-but these I like."

Tapia's paintings have no symbolic or hidden meaning. Tapia never gives his paintings a title. He feels an artist's title on a painting can take away a personal interpretation that someone has about a particular painting. As Tapia puts it, "One person's sunset is another person's sunrise. So if a painting blows someone's dress up, I don't want to mess with their hemline."Paul Tapia is spontaneous and outspoken. He is very philosophical, and admittedly he is a sentimental sap. He says "Most artists are a little different than the rest of humanity, so I fit right in." Those who really know Paul Tapia agree that his paintings are a very accurate extension of his unique personality.

It was Michelangelo who said that beauty needs neither apology nor explanation. It is there to be enjoyed, to be appreciated, to be absorbed by the physical senses.
Paul Tapia's abstracts fully encompass Michelangelo's theory.