Born in Los Angeles, California in the early 1960’s, Caesar Yanez has always had a penchant for creating and building whatever caught his curiosity.

Relentlessly, curious what techniques and medium artist utilized to create their art, drove him to experiment; therefore, allowed him to expand his knowledge in a broad array of medium.

Caesar has always enjoyed wildlife and nature from his early days. Always a big fan of “Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom” (70’s TV, series)

However, it was plastic model building that inspired Caesar to challenge himself in the late 60’s and early 70’s to learn the art of fabricating artistic scenes. He believes it was his older sibling that introduced him to the hobby.

Experimenting with plastic models, macramé, wood, ceramic, charcoal, oils, acrylics, wax, resin, oil clay; bronze has allowed him to hone his craft. Always focusing on realism, for it is this form of express that brings him artistic pleasure. He sees it as encapsulating a moment in time; therefore, his supporters have come to expect and admire stunning and realistic themes/scenes from him.

As a child, he and his older brother Sid would venture into the local thrift and dime stores to purchase models. The models ranged from autos, motorcycles and creatures.

Caesar like many others growing up would always hear about starving artists that could not seem to make ends meet. This belief and that artists were a dime a dozen were embedded into Caesar’s mind, since the 1970’s. Consequently, Caesar never desired to make a living as an artist, but treated it as his passion of love.

In 1980, he opted to attend U.C. Berkeley. In 1981, Caesar felt Berkeley was not for him; further, things were not fine at home, so he returned to Southern California to start a family. In the early 1980’s he enrolled at C.S.U.L.A. and majored in business.

He later was given the opportunity to franchise with Domino’s Pizza. He sold his franchise in 1994 and managed casual dining restaurants from 1994 to 2002. While bored with the food industry Caesar would continue his painting and sculpting on the side whenever time allowed.

In the mid 1990’s he was contacted by Dannyquest Designs and was offered freelance work as a dog sculptor. Several sculptures were produced under their name. Caesar enjoyed the week-to-week challenges of creating new canine sculptures.

Caesar never enjoyed the constant deadlines and limitations that were placed on his work. Caesar was always criticized by the owner for making his sculptures too large.  Caesar did not see a challenge in creating small sculptures and therefore lacked the drive for them. To Caesar a sculpture needs to be the focal point, one that demands your attention when you enter a room. Moreover, Caesar did not care for the cold-cast bronze resin sculptures that were being produced. Many collectors were unknowingly purchasing bonded-bronze sculptures, thinking they were the lost-wax bronze.

For museum quality sculpture art, they need to be produced in a precious metal or stone. Plastic just does not qualify as a desired medium. Collectors need to be better educated when purchasing art. Perhaps it is the seller’s job to disclose (educated) what exactly is cold-cast-bronze.

Caesar owns several cold-cast-bronzes and resin-airbrushed sculptures because he admires the detail and emotion the artist has invest in it; however, he never expects them to appreciate in value as a museum quality bronze would; however, there are exceptions to every rule.

In 2002 after being so disgusted with the restaurant industry because of the ridiculous hours a manager is expected to work, which translates to a poor quality of life, Caesar retired from the restaurant industry for good.

This was only after his wife Bettina had established her successful law practice. Thanks to Bettina, Caesar is now able to dedicate his time on his family and love of art.

Caesar spent about six years (2000 – 2006) learning the art of woodworking at the Cerrito’s College wood department. Once he learned and understood wood technology, Caesar incorporated his artistic skills into his wood projects. He did this in the form of woodcarvings that embellished all his projects.

Now the only woodcarving projects Caesar undertakes are those that are created for his wife. His wife’s Tustin law office is embellished with five solid walnut furniture pieces and one maple base carving that supports a bronze lady-justice .

Woodworking demands countless hours and most clients do not have the funds to afford such expensive woodcarvings. Caesar, made two exceptions to his rule…

1. The Saint Cornelius Catholic church in Long Beach, California. One of Cerrito’s instructors asked Caesar if he would take on the task of producing the woodcarvings for their Ambo and Alter.

2. A close family client also commission Caesar to built them a solid walnut entry door for their wine cellar.

Caesar has self-taught himself to wood carve, oil paint and sculpt. He will occasionally purchase books and tutorials to enhance his craft. His belief is that no matter how talented you are, there is always someone out there that will emulate your talents and art.

Caesar once heard an instructor tell a student, "claiming to be self-taught" was the worst thing an artist could do. When Caesar over heard this, he was baffled and stomped. To this day, he does not know the logic behind the instructor’s thinking. Perhaps there are those that look down on artists that lack the formal art academy training.

Caesar realizes he is missing a part of his art history knowledge. Maybe, it was the type of art that was being encouraged in those so-called schools that kept him from enrolling in an art school in the 80’s, or alternatively, perhaps it was his style of realism that clashed with the abstract modern art that was prominent in the 70’s.

For many years, Caesar did not refer to himself as an artist because of the association of the art that was being produced in the 70’ and present. Everyone used the word, “Artist” very loosely; therefore, the word somewhat lost its' meaning.

It took many years for Caesar to understand that there are many forms of art; to use a cliché, “different strokes for different folks”, is very true. All forms of art have their purpose in life. Judging someone’s art is not for Caesar, he just now likes to appreciate it for what it is… “someone’s expression”.

Currently, Caesar undertakes projects such as dog club trophies and custom memorial sculptures for canine companions that have passed.

In the '90s, his work for the dog fancier community (sculptures and paintings) attracted his following.

Caesar is currently focusing on bronze and hopes to some day network with art galleries.