Moroles began selling his artwork as early in life as during elementary school. He served four years in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War before setting off to study sculpture in Italy. He sold a piece of his art to study in Pietrasanta where Michelangelo practiced, pulling stone from the same quarry as the great Italian renaissance sculptor. He earned an Associate Degree from El Centro College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas, where he was a long-time member of the Visual Arts Advisory Board. In 1983 Moroles established his studio in Rockport to handle large granite stone. Integral to the studio operations, his parents Jose and Maria, his brother, Hilario, sister Suzanna and brother-in-law, Kurt Kangas contributed to the massive projects that characterize his work. “Lapstrake”, a 64 ton, 22 foot tall sculpture stands in the E. F. Hutton, CBS Plaza in New York City. Jesús is one of the very select few artists who was commissioned to place a large piece on the Great Wall of China. His art also is in the American Embassy to Mexico and at the residence of the 43rd President of the United States of America. 

The Houston Police Officers Memorial, one of that city’s most revered works of art, is his largest sculpture and is an earthen stepped pyramid that also extends below ground level in a mirror of the ascending extrusions. Other commissions include the Granite Sculpture Plaza at the Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas, The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Granite Gardens, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham, Alabama, to name only a few. His art resides in countries around the world including China, Egypt, France, Italy, Mexico and Switzerland. 

When asked about the importance of art in education, Moroles said, “Because of art, I stayed in school. I don’t think that I am gifted, I think that I am a hard worker and through hard work you can do anything that you want.” A value that Jesús attributed to learning by example from his mom and dad, who, in Jesús’ proud claims about his parents, always encouraged him to follow his dreams. 

In actuality a creative genius, Jesús said of his sculptures, “My work is a discussion of how man exists in nature and touches nature and uses nature. Each of my pieces has about 50 percent of its surfaces untouched and raw—those are parts of the stone that were torn. The rest of the work is smoothed and polished. The effect, which I want people to not only look at but touch, is a harmonious coexistence of the two.”

Hardcover
Publisher: HERRING PRESS INC; 1st edition, edition (2004)
ISBN-10: 0917001214
ISBN-13: 978-0917001215