Jerry De La Cruz is a Denver native who has steadfastly maintained his status as a professional fine artist for nearly fourty years now. His journey through the art world began in grade school in the ethnically rich neighborhood of North Denver. By junior high school Jerry was already respected as an artist by his teachers and peers. His early devotion to painting and photography began forging his personality and how he saw the world around him. Jerry's potential so impressed his high school art teacher that he scrounged up funding to sponsor Jerry's visit to a Kansas university. But the summer following his high school graduation in 1967, Jerry was drafted into the U.S. Army.

Returning from his three-year tour with the Signal Corps in Europe, Jerry used the GI bill to attend the  Rocky Mountain School of Art (now the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design), where he graduated cum laude in 1973. He also quickly jumped into a multitude of substrata of the Denver art scene, forming lifelong relationships that would eventually help in the foundation of his work as an arts activist. One of these led to the creation of 'Art in Action', Denver’s first (and now oldest) artist 'incubator', a large building filled with inexpensive art studios located across from the State Capitol at Colfax & Logan. This building would house Jerry's own studio for the next 27 years.

The mid-seventies found Jerry in the world of traditional figurative art. He was as often in Santa Fe and Taos as Denver, maintaining successful relationships with various galleries in the region. In 1976 and again in 1977, Jerry was awarded back-to-back artist-in-residency grants from the state Arts Council and with these residencies explored the new directions in his work. By the early eighties, Jerry's gallery associations had changed and his collector base broadened to include the corporate world. But Jerry again found his creative juices bubbling and began integrating his earliest taste for the surreal with his new techniques and methods. Between 1979 and 1989, Jerry created a series of several dozen large surreal works which truly defined and established the basis for his artistic vision. Many have been featured in books, magazines and some prestigious touring and museum exhibits.

In 1987, Jerry was invited to teach at the Art Students League of Denver and over the next 15 years remained a vital player in its success, volunteering as computer and web guru, sitting on the board of directors and acting as faculty liaison. In 1989, Jerry agreed to take on the only Spanish-language radio station in southern Colorado until the bankruptcy trustee could find a buyer. Jerry ended up buying the station and moving to Pueblo to run it. For the next eight years Jerry commuted weekly to Denver, where he maintained his studio, participated in various exhibitions, helped out at the League and taught a very serious group of students who came to be known as 'Jerry's Kids'. Meantime in Pueblo, he brought his artistic skills as well as his earlier military electronics training to bear in running the station which received two National Association of Broadcasters Marconi nominations as Best Spanish-language station of the year. The timing was incredible, as over those eight years, the world of broadcasting moved from dj's spinning vinyl to computer programs transmitting from digitized files. Jerry experienced the digital revolution from the front line and returned to Denver in 1997 (having sold the station), eager to bring his art into the digital era. Upon his return, he was awarded a prestigious Painting Fellowship from Colorado's state arts council (the last awarded).

Jerry is currently exploring digital manipulation of his photo and art images which have been exhibited and published internationally. He is also renovating a 4,000 square foot former bar (built in late 1800's) off Santa Fe Drive as his new studio and home. In 2006, his work was at one time on display in three unrelated Denver art museum exhibits - a large surreal work at the Denver Art Museum, a reliquario assembly at the Mizel Museum and some large digital photography works at El Museo de las Americas. While his traditionally rendered oil glazed portrait from 1986 was on display upstairs, a separate arm of the Denver Art Museum independently sought out Jerry to have him create a large digital mosaic assemblage commemorating the new Libeskind Building.

"There are those in the art world who believe that an artist should devote him or herself to developing a single voice in their work. But, to me, in this bigger, broader and more complicated world, I’d rather experience it as a multi-linguist." So sums up Jerry De La Cruz.