"No Nos Quieren Corazon"
14" x 17"
Pencil, pencil color, pen and ink
JAVIER ESPINOZA, ARTIST
Friday, August 8th I look through my Facebook friends posts and I see an invite to go check out Jardin Del Arte here in Edinburg, TX. The humidity usually keeps me away from outdoor events at times...not tonight! I wanted to come out and say hello to some friends as I scouted artists for my next Pasta, Poetry & Vino event for October.
I ran into artist Celeste De Luna and her husband...talked about summer vacations and esto y aquello. I turn around and I see Javier. Javier reminds me of the type of guy that would have been a camarada from my old neighborhood in Los Angeles... real chill attitude, witty and real...and extremely talented. Hazme un tattoo esé!
Javier is all south Texas! with a love and passion for the Tex-Mex music and culture of this region
and state. Which translates to loving low-riders, oldies, cook-outs on Sunday and Cruisin' Whittier Boulevard if he were from my barrio.
"Conjunto: South Texas Musicos"
16" x 20"
Acrylic paint on canvas
I don't want to classify him as a cartoonist, for me, he is a dedicated and surreal poet that draws his prose and metaphors for us all to enjoy visually on canvas. I see him listening to Sublime or Freddy Fender when coming up with these drawings and paintings, but that's just me!
Let's see what Javier has to say:
Q: Why art?
Growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, we didn’t have the
gadgets most kids own today, so we had to be creative and art for me was, and
still is, a way to create what floats in my mind. There is no greater sense of
accomplishment for me than when I can sit in front of a newly finished piece. Art
for me is like prayer; it is a therapeutic lifeline and my mind goes happily
blank when I am in the process of working on my art. Creating art flushes all
my worries away. As artists, we are in the business to create and design. Some
people are good at math, some at cooking, fixing automobiles, etc. I am blessed
and grateful to have this talent.
Q: What’s your background?
My background is mostly in
illustration and cartoonish type of artwork. I used to work as a writer and
comic strip cartoonist for STEM Magazine in McAllen, Texas (no longer in
business) and The Community Voice-La Voz, which is based out of Grand Rapids,
Michigan. I enjoy making cartoonish, surrealistic and abstract type of art and
some of my art features “musicos” of the Tex-Mex kind, robots, random creatures
and other types of characters. I love to write and enjoy photography as well.
"Minus My Mechanism"
11" x 15"
Acrylic paint, pen and ink on watercolor paper
Q: What do you dislike about the art world?
Not much really. In the art world anything goes and
creativity is an open field for all. I don’t like the “snotty” nature of some
artists. I like to keep it real and arrogance or “wannabe’s” for me are a true
turn off. I look at this way, my art isn’t for everyone and that’s ok but
arrogance and ignorance are a huge no-no for me.
Q: What role does an artist play in society?
An artist plays many roles in society. Several elementary
school children asked me this same question once and my response to them was
that artists design the shoes and clothes they wear, the building they attend
school in, the bus or vehicle that takes them to and from, the pencil in their
hands, etc. Artists are designers because everything we see around us was
originally designed by someone, whether on a graphic design computer program or
old-school sketching.
"Prayer Cuatro"
16" x 20"
Acrylic paint on canvas
Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
About art: Break the rules, but respect the classics. Art
is about quality, not quantity. About life: Inspire others even if it doesn’t
involve art.
Q: Name something you don’t love, and why.
I don’t like (or love) the “selfish intentions” of some
people. People say that money is the root of all evil and I agree with that,
but selfish intentions are a darker sense of evil that ruin anything and
everything because so much that hurts us emotionally as humans stems from the
genesis of selfish intentions.
"Llorar y Llorar"
20" x 24"
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 24"
Acrylic on canvas
"Proceed to Shutdown Sequence"
11" x 15"
Acrylic paint, pen and ink on watercolor paper
Q: Who is your favorite comic book hero?
My favorite comic book hero is The Hulk. No one would
ever bullied the Hulk. I got picked on as a kid by a few neighborhood bullies and
when they picked on me, I always wanted to use the line, “Don’t make me angry,
you won’t like it when I’m angry.” Ha! Imagine that. I would’ve been four foot
tall and about 120 lbs. of mean green chubbiness and purple torn pants.
Q: When you are gone, what do you want your body of work to accomplish?
Good question. I would hope my art could put a smile on
someone’s face 50 to 75 years from now and that my five year old son can
experience my art work for himself as an adult and that through my art he may
remember me and keep me in his heart.
From Javier Espinoza:
Much of my work
reflects my illustration background and many of the cartoonish, abstract and
surrealistic elements in my works stem from my days as a comic strip artist for
the publications South Texas Entertainment Magazine (McAllen, Texas) and The
Community Voice-La Voz (Grand Rapids, Michigan). I have continued
drawing cartoon characters to this day, using this format for most of my
characters in many “musico” paintings and works of other subject matter. Over
these past several years, this process and style has had its way with me and
has provided much fun for me during the creation process. It is within this colorful
and surrealistic style that I am happiest making artwork. Drawing and painting
strike me with a sense of accomplishment and has proven a most amenable vehicle
for translating my inner vision to outer reality. The concrete and sometimes
repetitive nature of my style of work (in my musico series) frees my
imagination and provides many opportunities for blissful accidents of painted
brush strokes, outlined by thick acrylic paint or sketchy marker ink lines
which grace to influence the finished product and bring to life the characters
within my paintings. Some of my personal influences include artists such as
Mort Drucker, Diego Rivera, Pablo Picasso, Bill Watterson, Cayetano Garza, Jr.,
Ramon Ramirez and Lucy Romero. I am a former art student at The University of Texas-Pan
American where I studied Studio Art.
Visit his website: http://javier-espinoza.com
Thank you for visiting my blog! Abrazos y Bendiciones!
-Edward Vidaurre
Edward Vidaurre has been been published in several anthologies and literary journals among them La Bloga, La Tolteca Zine, Bordersenses, Interstice, La Noria Literary Journal, Boundless Anthology of the Valley International Poetry Festival 2011-2013. He’s had two books published -'I Took My Barrio On A Road Trip' (Slough Press 2013) and ‘Insomnia’ (El Zarape Press 2014). He also co-edited TWENTY-Poems in Memoriam and Boundless 2014 the Anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival. He is the founder of the reading series-Pasta, Poetry & Vino. Vidaurre lives in Edinburg, TX
facebook.com/edward.vidaurre
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