Renata Gonzalez

Renata Gonzalez passed away unexpectedly Saturday, February 5, 2011 from medical complications related to a traumatic brain injury she sustained three years ago while studying as an artist in San Francisco. Her family was by her side in her final days and hours. She was 30 years old.

She is survived by her parents, Edward & Barbara Gonzalez; sister, Natalia Joyce and her husband Ryan Joyce; sister Maya Gonzalez; brothers Diego Gonzalez, Mica Gonzalez his wife, Eva Leavitt; niece Renata Luna and one more niece/nephew on the way.

Renata was quick-witted and acerbic, creative and outrageous, loving and caring. She had a great compassion for animals and became vegan as a teenager. She was fiercely loyal to her family and to her numerous and caring friends.

Renata's talents as an artist were recognized with first place awards at Academy of Arts University in San Francisco, and was being courted as an up and coming artist for exhibitions by San Francisco art galleries. Renata's talent as painter and sculptor attracted academic mentors to her work. Her paintings employed the techniques of photorealism.

In her paintings, Renata playfully poked at our ideas of beauty and questioned American and Western culture's obsession with status symbols and the compulsion to identify with things external. At the time of her accident, Renata was preparing a show dealing with The Rebirth of Renata G. at California College of the Arts, a performance art piece exploring the intersection of family, home and transcendence.

The family is eternally grateful and joyful that they were able to personally care for Renata at home where she wanted to be in the last three years of her life.

Renata will lie in state Tuesday afternoon at her home where she was born as the middle child of the Gonzalez family. A rosary will be held in the family's home on Tuesday evening, and Renata will be interred on Wednesday morning in a private ceremony. The family would like to express their deepest gratitude to those who helped care for her, to those who helped shape her, and to those who will continue to let her be reborn in their hearts and thoughts.