Artist Javier Zaragoza Speaks at Sept. 1 CSRC Meeting
Artist Javier Zaragoza, recently selected as Distinguished Senior of the Year by DIF Chapala, was the speaker at the Sept. 1 CSRC meeting in Chapala. Javier was one of the painters nurtured by Neil James back in the 1950s. He tells people that ‘she was like a mother to me’.
Javier spoke of his early life – he loved to paint, but did not get good grades in school. But, because of Neil James, he received a scholarship at age 13 to study art in San Miguel de Allende for two years. James was living on the property where LCS is now, and she sold the students’ art for them. Javier started doing murals not long after that, and at 16 he painted six murals in the church in Ixtlahuacan.
He later went to California, hoping to sell his art there, but could not find a gallery that would show it. But there was a lot of work (paying $1.15 US an hour), and he worked at a number of jobs there for eight years before finding a job doing artwork. Along the way, he earned his high school diploma studying at night.
In 1970 he got his first job painting billboards – it was commercial art, but he loved it, particularly painting movie stars. Years later, billboard production moved to digital technology and he lost his job, but continued painting – this time backdrops for film sets at Warner Brothers studios.
Periodically, he tried to sell his own art, but the galleries still did not want to show his work. He decided to return back home to Ajijic in 1999, where he opened his own gallery, and has created paintings and murals ever since. In 2008, he painted the mural on Hidalgo in Chapala, and most of the work he does today is murals. He says that 80% of the local painters in Ajijic can make a living from their work.
He now teaches in the LCS art program on Saturdays and wants to give back to the community here. He believes there will be lots of talented new artists coming out of that program.
Very few people can go through life doing what they love, but he has, and for that reason he says he feels ‘like a millionaire’.