|
|
Eagle Street
(near Boyle Heights) LA 1989
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
|
LA’s
Loss is SA’s Gain
Artist,
Art Instructor, Musicologist and Musician, Jacinto (rhymes with San
Jacinto) Guevara came to Texas in 1992
where he “discovered new vistas of inspiration for [his] urban landscapes
and [also] began painting portraits.
It was his architectural paintings that caught our eye. A self-described
“architectural hardliner” Jacinto has meticulously replaced details
in his home that had been removed in previous “re-muddlings.” He is
a finishing carpenter who can accurately date doors, molding and trim.
“My house was built around 1890-95 and moved to its present location
in 1913. In 1999 I gutted everything post 1900.” The five year waiver
between 1895 and 1900 proves that Guevara is flexible, although he
is uncompromising in his approach to art. |
|
Traction, Third
and Hewitt (L.A.) 1990 (First Sale)
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
|
| His
attraction to neighborhood houses had already begun in California
and indeed, some of his early paintings often confuse Texans who would
swear that they have seen his subjects in San
Antonio or the Northside of Houston. |
“Representational
with an Impressionistic Flair”
G>uevara’s
first important exhibit and sale was in 1990 at the East Los Streetscapers,
at LA’s Palmetto Galley. Of notable interest are his (1987-1990) paintings
of the now gone Temple Beaudry neighborhood.
“My artwork is "representational" acrylic/oil painting. I call this
body of work Urban Landscapes. My finished pieces are detailed celebrations
of architecture, lovingly articulated plants, animals and even passersby.
I strive to create a work of heirloom quality that conveys visual
poetry. These are created in the most honest tradition known as plein-aire
painting. Inspiration is derived from reality and what is seen in
a myriad of atmospheric subtlety. One measure of great art is its
topicality and connection to actual situations of a particular place
and time. These are things not captured when artists copy photographs.”
|
1526 S. Flores
(San Antonio) 1995
Copyright Jacinto Guevara |
507 Marshall
(San Antonio) 1995
A forlorn "squatter's house, shortly before it's demolition.
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
|
Maguey 2005
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
|
Pawelek House.
An impressionistic view of a typical south
Texas home that stood in Falls
City.
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
|
His
current project is a series
of paintings of Texas train depots, choosing them for their character
and not for their present condition. His preference is for the unvarnished
buildings that have survived their trials without benefit of restoration.
Among the depots he has captured so far, are Lometa, Lytle, Poth,
Lodi / Floresville, Waring, Pleasanton, Flatonia, and Giddings.
These train station paintings will be exhibited in a January (2008)
show in San Antonio
called They Don't Stop Here hosted by Gallery118 Broadway,
San Antonio. |
 |
With
his interest in music and art, one might think that he has every excuse
to live the late-to-bed, later-to-rise Bohemian lifestyle, but our
two interviews with Guevara pierced that thought. He arrives when
he says (or before) and leaves late. His recent middle-of-the-night
return drive from Giddings
left him “sunburned, dehydrated, exhausted and elated” but he managed
to meet a reporter from San
Antonio on schedule – forty-five miles west of that city the next
morning.
Guevara’s fervent approach to art drew the reporter to meet the artist
on site (on the reporter’s day off) in Waring,
Texas to video-record a three-hour interview. |
Waring
Texas
Depot Sketch
Copyright Jacinto Guevara
TE photo, October 2007
|
Guevara
was one of 20 local artists to participate in the "Percent For Art"
program for the San Antonio Convention Center Expansion Project in
1999.
In 2005 he exhibited two series of paper figurines called World
Conflict Figures and Forgotten Hollywood. These were painted figurines
made of paper, glue, and wire.
Some of Guevara’s paintings can be seen at the Lisa Ortiz Contemporary
Gallery in Olmos Park, just north of downtown San
Antonio and he has at least two paintings at the Institute of
Texan Cultures.
You can see more paintings and the “authorized” bio of Jacinto Guevara
at his website: www.JacintoGuevara.com
If you feel a connection (artistic or otherwise), you might dare to
visit www.EskimoSpitBath.com |
Guevara on
Art and Architecture
In
his own words:
My
mother put crayons and paper in my hands within days of my birth.
Every year in junior and high school I received a summer scholarships
to famous art schools in L.A. but frankly, I was bored by the approach.
"90% of my "art" is the attitude that accepts ideas and pushes
me to complete the creation of something that did not exist before.
It is the driving force that makes me an artist and not an illustrator."
"To tell the truth, I love architecture so much that when it
is in great condition I don't feel a need to paint it. I look for
old, rundown, forgotten places and paint everything around it; trash,
overgrown plants, telephone poles/wires, and passersby. I equate my
artwork with poetry, not commercial illustration. I endeavor to show
the beauty in things that most people don't see." |
|
Self Portrait
Copyright
Jacinto Guevara
|
|
Guevara
in words other than his:
With
enough enthusiasm to exhaust faint-at-heart onlookers and audiences,
Guevara also finds time to fulfill his duties as Director of the
Eskimo Spit Bath Orchestra.
An expert in Texas-Mexican music and 1920's pop music, Guevara plays
button accordion and is learning banjo (he has an affinity for unloved
instruments). At the drop of a hat, Jacinto can give you “Ukulele”
Ike’s real name, discuss the differences between oriental string
instruments and their similarities with western instruments or tell
you when and how the Rhythm Boys took top billing from Paul Whiteman’s
Orchestra.
Jacinto Guevara may be living proof that (several, at least) Vaudeville
entertainers have been reincarnated and are now living among us.
©
John Troesser
April 1, 2008
More People
| Art
|
|
|
HOME
