Luis Alejandro Steinbeck was born in 1979 in San Antonio, Chile. He spent his early childhood in Cartagena, the closest beach town to Santiago. His interest in the world of fine arts began at a very young age. He was particularly drawn to painting and quickly fell in love with the acrylic and watercolor mediums. While his main visual artistic focus was abstract painting, Luis also enjoyed creating beautiful works of art depicting the scenic mountains, rivers, and lakes around him. At the age of 12, Luis won a national painting contest that prompted his aspiration to attend an art academy. His interest in the musical art world was slightly more expansive, and he learned to play an array of different instruments, participating in various local bands in Chile and California. Luis also found joy in recording/producing the sounds of nature. The beginning of Luis' career as a poet was largely influenced by the words of a respected elementary school teacher; they inspired Luis to pay attention to poetry and the art of writing. His teacher expressed to him how important it would be in his life to adequately represent himself through the written word. Young Luis took this advice to heart. He wrote love letters to everyone who possessed the ability to break down the walls of words passing through eternal silences; it was evident that Luis had found beauty and ease of self-expression through the written word. Luis was discouraged from pursuing his artistic dreams of attending an art academy and was pushed to focus on a more traditional and reliable profession. Luis has held many different occupational positions throughout his life: line cook, grocery store cashier, firefighter, lifeguard, office administrator, computer adviser/consultant, logistics coordinator for a mountaineering school, Spanish teacher, carpenter, tile setter, interior designer, arborist, tree nursery manager, painter, roofer, self-taught auto mechanic, farmer, and woodworker. In December 2005, Luis moved to Camarillo, CA, with his first wife and learned English. While in California, he also partook in a number of art and music classes, through both Ventura and Santa Barbara City College, to further develop his capacity to communicate artistically and in the English language. In 2009 Luis divorced his first wife and moved back to Chile. He met a local carver there who worked with the canary palm tree wood. Luis apprenticed for the carver for 4 four years, sanding and staining finished artworks. During his time as an apprentice, Luis enjoyed his work but displayed no interest in carving his own pieces. When he moved back to California in 2013, Luis completed a series of about 50 hand-carved masks called "Ancestors of the Universe." The carvings were displayed and sold in several art galleries throughout Southern California, including Mystic Arts Gallery in Laguna Beach, where his sculptures were displayed for a month in august 2015. In 2016 Luis was invited to finish building a tiny house in Kauai, Hawaii, where he currently resides. He keeps busy, working with many of his favorite art forms. Some of his favorite projects to work on include writing, painting, music recording/production, and building.
