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Before
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During
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After
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Susanville, California
Circa 1974 |
BIltmore Hotel, Los Angeles,
CA
Circa 1993 |
Crazy Horse Saloon, Paris
Circa 1999 |
L.A. Weekly - Best Indescribable Wall Art
"...George Yepes, Muralist and Painter...Yepes is Los Angeles' greatest living
Baroque artist."
Marc B. Haefele, Writer - L.A. Weekly
Los Angeles, California
“When it comes to sheer touch that combines beautiful control over line and
brushwork, yet seemingly spontaneous expression, George Yepes is among the
best. His darkly romantic excess can’t help but make you think he would have
been Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s equal among the Pre-Raphaelites (1828-1882
London, England). But these saints and sinners are hardly a throwback. Yepes’
painting has a visual density and suggestiveness that is as tantalizing to the
intellect as it is arresting for the eye”.
ArtScene
The Visual Art Guide to over 400 Los Angeles Art Galleries and Museums
"Like Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti, 1518-94), George Yepes has the ability to
pull down from heaven the designs which God has for humans and paint them so
people can discover through the paintings what they are deaf to in words."
Dr. David Carrasco, Historian of Religions
Neil Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America
Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures
Harvard University
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YEPES FAMILY HISTORY 1904 – 2007
1904 – Josefa Rico Villafana (George Yepes’ maternal Grandmother) was born on
March 28, in Autlan, Jalisco.
1918 – Salvador Duenas Yepes (George Yepes' father) was born on December 6, in
Jacona, Michuacan, Mexico.
In 1926 Concepcion Yepes (George Yepes’ Grandfather), moved his family
(including his yougest son, Salvador Duenas Yepes), from Jacona, Michoacan and
migrated north. The family crossed into Laredo, Texas. The eight year old,
Salvador would later recall - "the coldest night of my life was in Laredo,
where our family almost froze as we slept outdoors waiting for our first day
in the U.S."
1927- Concepcion would volunteer for any work available as the trains came by
which kept the family moving north across Texas all the way to Lincoln,
Nebraska. In Lincoln, Concepcion worked a field that included a small shack
for his family to live in, and a cow, for the family to survive on the milk.
He soon realized that he was being charged for all of the living expenses and
that he would never be able to un-indenture his family from the debt.
Conception decided that their only hope was for him to travel north in search
of better work. He left his wife and their three small children working the
field in Nebraska. He secured a job at the Wilson Foundry in Pontiac, Michigan
making engine blocks for General Motors. He returned to Nebraska in an
automoble and moved his wife and children to Pontiac.
Salvador began 3rd Grade in Pontiac and learned English, he recalled he and
his older brother having to defend themselves at school because they wore
their pants "estilo Michoacan". In 1929, when the Great Depression hit the
United States, Conception packed up his family and they all returned to
Mexico. For the next 3 years, the eleven year old Salvador worked a team of
mules plowing the family farm. His foreman was his older brother.
Suffering from an ailing heart since Pontiac, Salvador’s mother, Antonia, died
of a heart attack in Jacona. Soon after, Concepcion abandoned the three
children. Salvador’s older sister ,Lupe, quickly married an older man in an
attempt to keep her younger brothers at home. In Jacona, it was ‘un-manly’ to
do laundry, therefore, since the death of his mother, Salvador would wash his
clothes in the river at night.
Once a month a large cargo truck from Mexico City would arrive in Jacona
bringing supplies and returning with merchandise. On one of those visits, the
cargo truck got stuck in a ditch outside of town. The 14 year old Salvador was
located to solve the problem. He unloaded the truck; pulled it back onto the
road; and re-loaded it. The driver stated, “workers like you are needed in
Mexico City”. Salvador responded, “next month when you arrive, I’ll go back
with you.” The following month, Salvador, with "tres Centavos" (3 pennies) in
his pocket, left Jacona at age 14 and headed for Mexico City. He learned the
trade of a marble and tile setter.
Maria Eugenia Loreto Rico, (George Yepes' mother), was born on July 18, 1924
in Autlan de la Grana, Jalisco, Mexico. The love child of Jose Loreto and
Josefa Rico Garcia, Eugenia enters the world amid scandal, strife, and
bitterness.
Jose Loreto, was an established and well-respected mechanic, and Josefa Rico
Garcia (later Villafana), was a 19 year old girl from one of the poorest
families in Autlan. Josefa attempted but failed to abort the infant prior to
her birth.
Josefa resented the fact that Jose’s family disapproved of her, and that they
had pressured Jose to end the relationship. Josefa decided to give Eugenia to
one of her older sisters, Juana. Juana lovingly accepted Eugenia and took the
child to live with her in Guadalajara, where Eugenia would spend some of the
happiest years of her life. Eugenia lived with her “Mama Juanita” until the
age of seven, then Josefa reclaimed her. Josefa removed Eugenia from school so
she could cook, clean, and take care of her newborn sister Teresa, while
Josefa worked at a local ice cream shop in Autlan. Not having had the
opportunity for a formal education, Eugenia taught herself to read and write.
A kind, loving father until his accidental death in 1957, Jose never denied or
forsaked Eugenia. On the contrary, he asked Josefa for her hand in marriage
many times, but Josefa refused. Josefa felt insulted since, in her perception,
Jose wanted to marry her to legalize their union, rather than to affirm their
love before his family and the town. Eventually, Jose married another woman in
town, Micaela. In one event, after a severe beating by Josefa, Eugenia ran to
Jose’s place of work, Jose took her to his home and tried to convince Micaela
to accept the child into their home. Micaela responded, “take that
‘bastardita’ out of my home”. Eugenia over heard everything, and those words
would haunt her to her deathbed. Jose returned Eugenia to Josefa’s house and
left her outside the front door. Mama Juanita found Eugenia outside crying on
the curb, and took her back to Guadalajara with her. Jose and Micaela
eventually had six children. Among them was Antonio Jose Loreto, Eugenia’s
favorite brother and secret playmate. Josefa forbade that Eugenia have any
contact with Antonio, but Eugenia fostered their relationship nevertheless.
Although it would cost her “many beatings,” as Eugenia would later tell the
story, she continued to have close contact with Antonio despite her mother’s
wishes. The two remained close, loving siblings until Eugenia left Autlan.
1931—1939: Eugenia spent her childhood moving from her mother’s house to her
Mama Juanita’s home, as Josefa continued to vent her anger on the young girl,
reflecting her bitter disappointment at the failed relationship with Jose.
Josefa’s older sisters repeatedly chided Josefa for her unfair treatment of
the child, and Juana regularly visited Autlan to protect and remove Eugenia
from her home as needed. Yet—despite the inconstancy in her home—Eugenia
enjoyed a relatively carefree life on Mama Juanita’s ranch. Juana has several
sons, and they enjoyed the company of the young Eugenia who was quite agile
and strong for her age. At eleven, Eugenia learned to ride bareback on Juana’s
ranch, and her male cousins would hoot and holler as they would watch her
climb the hearty trees so she could lunge and land on the horse her cousins
had sent her way. They called her “Don Quixote,” and Eugenia proudly accepted
the nickname. From her cousins, Eugenia also learned to wrestle down the
fattened hogs on the ranch. At slaughter time, she also assisted her Mama
Juana and Josefa at the task of holding down the hogs.
By slaughtering hogs and selling their meat, raising gamecocks for the local
gamers, and working full-time at either the ice cream shop or the local diner,
Josefa earned a decent living for herself and her daughters. But her admirable
ability to be economically independent went unrecognized, as her family and
the town increasingly viewed her as a wanton woman who openly defied society
and the church. By then, three or four men, had been in Josefa’s life, and the
town found the behavior inexcusable.
1940—At 36, Josefa found herself single and with two daughters from two
separate fathers. The people of Autlan made life a living hell for her, with
the town’s bile spilling over upon her daughters as well. Tired of hearing the
cruel talk, and of having her daughters humiliated and berated in public,
Josefa decided to head north, where she would have the opportunity to reinvent
herself and leave behind her checkered life.
At 16, Eugenia migrated to Tijuana, Baja California with her mother and
half-sister, Teresa (age 9). They took up residence at Dona Chonita’s Boarding
House, the same boarding house where Eugenia would later meet Salvador Yepes
Duenas.
1942-1945, World War II was in full force, and the Bracero (Guest Worker)
Program brought many Mexican laborers into the United States to keep the
economy moving. A Mexico City marble and tile setter by trade, and a nomad by
nature, the 24 year old Salvador embarked on a 50-year - Marble & Tile Setters
Union career - in the United States. By following the construction jobs that
abounded between Las Vegas, San Francisco, and the border with Mexico,
Salvador was able to quench the deep restlessness that had possessed him at
age 14, upon the sudden death of his mother, and the abandonment by his
father.
Two other Mexican compatriots, Eugenia and her mother Josefa, obtained U.S.
visas and worked weekdays in the canneries of Monterey, California. Being
younger and stronger than her mother, Eugenia distinguished herself on cannery
row by packing and sealing her quota of boxes and then helping her mother to
complete her own quota. On the weekends they would ride the bus 500 miles back
to Mexico. Eugenia and her mother traveled back and forth from Monterey to
Tijuana and Guadalajara to visit, live, work, and for Eugenia to finish
school.
On one of those trips, Eugenia again spent time with her Mama Juanita. That
would be the last time that Eugenia would live temporarily with Juana, as
Josefa reclaimed her permanently and began to plan Eugenia’s future: Josefa
had failed to marry a distinguished man, but Eugenia would not make the same
mistake. Josefa would make sure that her daughter married well.
Smart and pretty, Eugenia attracted the attention of many men, much to the
delight—and, sometimes, envy—of Josefa. The tense mother-daughter relationship
that had already existed exacerbated as Josefa openly encouraged rich suitors
to pursue Eugenia, or steered some her own way, depending on the
circumstances. Eugenia repeatedly rejected the suitors, engaging in a battle
of wills with her mother, and forcing Josefa to make clandestine arrangements
with potential suitors so Eugenia would not have the opportunity to reject
them.
Salvador frequented the U.S./Mexico Border crossing at Tijuana. For several
years he had been working all over Southern California, and his earnings had
sky rocketed since leaving Mexico City. Ten years into his daily routine of
lifting cement bags, tile, marble, and bricks, insured that he was fit, and
tanned. During that time, he had been working during the week on construction
jobs in Los Angeles. On the job, he always drove a pickup truck with all his
equipment in it. On the weekends he wore a suit and tie, and only drove his
Cadillac. Every weekend he would drive down to Tijuana, and escort back
numerous Mariachis and or Singers, to the Million Dollar Theatre on Broadway,
in Downtown Los Angeles. In the 1940’s, The Million Dollar Theatre showcased
Mexico’s top Entertainers from Music to the Golden Era of Theatre and Movies.
Eugenia would later attest, as many other women had, that Salvador was a ‘Dead
Ringer’ (pencil mustache included) for two of Mexico’s most famous
Singer/Movie Stars, Antonio Augilar and Pedro Infante.
1946- At the age of 22, Eugenia graduated from the Guadalajara Beauty Academy,
and soon after, she met the 28 year old Salvador Yepes in Tijuana. Salvador
was handsome, fit, amicable, and sharp, and her tremendous attraction to him
was undeniable. To Eugenia, Salvador was a hard-working man who earned his
living, rather than a pampered, despotic youth who carried his family’s
wealth, as so many of Eugenia’s suitors did. She fell for him instantly,
fueling Josefa’s fury since Josefa had been arranging secretly for a local
merchant to marry Eugenia. Josefa considered Salvador “un indio patarajad,” a
barefooted peasant, what she claimed to be the lowest of the low in Mexican
society.
To Eugenia, Salvador represented everything that her mother abhored.
Nonetheless, Eugenia decided to marry Salvador without her mother’s blessing.
Josefa, till death, never forgave Salvador.
Deeply in love, Eugenia and Salvador eloped at a church wedding in downtown
Tijuana and quickly moved to Los Angeles where Salvador was working. Having
always had the freedom to move from place to place as he wished, Salvador,
once again, continued to follow the construction jobs, and his nomadic spirit,
across the State of California.
1946- Salvador was working in Los Angeles. Eugenia, Josefa, and Teresa were
living with him. Salvador remembers driving home from work, and from the
driveway he could hear Eugenia, her mother and sister all talking, laughing
and enjoying their home. When he’d enter the house all was quiet, and there
would be a plate of food for him on the table. Eugenia was pregnant. One day
when Salvador returned from work, the house was empty and they were all gone.
Salvador heard later that Eugenia, her mother and sister had moved back to
Mexico. Then later he heard he had a son.
1947—Armando Yepes Loreto was born in Rosarito, Baja California. Josefa’s
anger toward Eugenia lessened as Josefa fell in love with her first-born
grandson and she doted over him nonstop. Taking advantage of Salvador’s
absence, Josefa decided to resume her attempts to have Eugenia marry a wealthy
suitor. To Eugenia’s horror, Josefa had already promised a downtown
businessman that Eugenia would marry him. Wanting to escape her mother’s
relentless attempts to marry her off, Eugenia decided to move to Los Angeles
and return to Salvador. In a final attempt, Josefa gave Eugenia an ultimatum:
if Eugenia moved to Los Angeles, she would have to leave Armando in Rosarito
with Josefa. Convinced that her mother would never be satisfied, Eugenia, once
again, asserted her spirited nature: with Dona Chonita’s help and her 18 month
old son, Armando, in her arms, she boarded a bus heading north to Los Angeles,
and left Mexico and her mother behind. Salvador was living in a hotel near
Broadway and 8th in Downtown Los Angeles when Eugenia and Armando arrived at
his door. It was the first time Salvador had seen his son. Josefa refused to
speak or communicate with Eugenia for the next two years.
1947—1949: Josefa resumed traveling from Tijuana to Monterey in search of
work, finally obtained employment at a diner in Salinas, California. During
that time, she met a Mexican American construction worker, Nestor Villafana.
Recognizing that Nestor loved her, and that he possessed the stability and
means she had always sought, Josefa agreed to marry him. At 46, and for the
first time in her life, Josefa seemed settled and happy. Through Nestor, she
obtained her permanent U.S. residency, finally committing to the country that
had helped her to change her life.
1947—1949: Salvador was working between Los Angeles and Salinas, California.
Eugenia found herself pregnant in 1948 but she miscarried: born three months
premature, the fragile baby was named Margarita by Eugenia shortly before the
infant died. Eugenia was heartbroken but found herself pregnant again in 1949.
Josefa and Eugenia resumed their relationship, and Josefa helped Eugenia with
Armando during her pregnancy and after the birth of her second child.
1950—Maria Elena Yepes Loreto was born on January 25 in Salinas, California.
Eugenia was overjoyed to have a healthy, full-term baby girl, and the family
enjoyed many tranquil days during their stay in Salinas. Eugenia asked
Josefa’s husband, Nestor, to baptize Elena, becoming her godfather and further
establishing his role within the family.
1951— Salinas, California. Eugenia miscarries again, stillborn, Salvador names
her Monica.
1952—Maria Antonia Yepes Loreto was born in Chula Vista, California on January
7. Although he named Antonia in honor of his mother, Salvador began to resent
his increasing responsibilities toward Eugenia and his children. He told
Eugenia that she should stop “filling him with girls,” that he wanted more
sons so they would learn his trade. Eugenia was deeply hurt and disappointed
by his viewpoint, but she kept her pain within.
Having three children was a delight, and Eugenia enjoyed playing with Armando,
Elena, and Antonia daily, singing, reading, and telling them fairy tales.
Eugenia finally had the opportunity to play and exercise her imagination,
something she had rarely been able to do as a child.
1954—Martha Yepes Loreto was born in Los Angeles, California on November 5.
Remembering her constant moving at her mother’s side, Eugenia was tired of
packing and unpacking every year, and she began to pressure Salvador to settle
in one place where they would be able to raise their family permanently.
Despite Eugenia’s pleading, Salvador continued to follow construction jobs
throughout California, ignoring her wishes to settle in one place. Somehow, he
could not commit to one neighborhood, one town.
Eugenia had endured the constant moving, and more.
Being proud of his Mexican Nationalism, Salvador would drive Eugenia, in
labor, south toward the Mexican border to ensure all his children were born
Mexican Nationals. To date, three of his four children had inadvertently been
born U.S. citizens.
1954 – East Los Angeles, California. When Salvador found out that Eugenia was
pregnant with their fifth child, he made plans to move the family back into
Mexico. When Eugenia was six months pregnant, Salvador moved The Yepes family
to Tijuana to insure that the child was born a Mexican National.
1956—The last-born, Jose Jorge Yepes Loreto, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
on February 17.
It was Eugenia’s seventh pregnancy, and she had suffered from constant
bleeding throughout the difficult and dangerous full term. Eugenia and
Salvador were distraught at the thought of losing another child. Amid a meteor
shower over Baja, Jorge was born sickly and on the brink of death, but
miraculously at three months old, he was baptized, gained strength, and
recovered.
May 19, 1956 – Jose Jorge was baptized by el Reverendo Padre Guilebaldo
Marquez M.Sp.S. at La Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Tijuana, Baja
California. Godparents: Juan Lara and Esperanza Lara.
1957- Jose Loreto (Eugenia’s father) dies in Autlan, Jalisco. He had been
working on a machine in his shop and was accidentally electrocuted.
1957 – Salvador moved The Yepes family from Tijuana to Guadalajara, Jalisco.
(Jorge) George spent the next three years of his life in Guadalajara.
July 12, 1959 – Jose Jorge was Confirmed by el Ministro. Excmo. Arzobispo Dr.
D. Jose Garibi Rivera at the Arzobispado de Guadalajara en La Santa Iglesia
Catedral Basilica, Parroquia del Sagrario Metropolitano, Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Godfather: Rosendo Martinez
1959 - During this time Salvador was commuting to work between California and
Guadalajara, and George had begun to draw.
1960 – While in Guadalajara, fearing the eminent breakup with Salvador,
Eugenia devised a plan to insure that all her children were raised in the
United States. When George turned four years of age, Eugenia gave him to her
best friend, La Senora Chuy, to smuggle him back into East Los Angeles. George
remembers hiding behind the rumble seat of the station wagon as El Senor Goyo
drove him across the border into the United States. Chuy and her husband, El
Senor Goy (Gregorio Lugan) lived at the corner of Humphries Street and
Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles. George lived in a small trailer in the
backyard of the house. Six months later, Eugenia and the rest of the Yepes
children arrived from Guadalajara, and moved into the garage at the Humphries
house.
1961 – On weekends, Salvador began to take Armando and George to work with him
on private construction jobs in the Hollywood Hills. Salvador moved The Yepes
family into a house at 4030 East Fisher Street, at Hazard Avenue, below City
Terrace Park, in the Heart of East Los Angeles.
1962 – When George turned five years of age, Eugenia and Salvador separated.
Eugenia, at the age of 38, began the hard work of raising 5 children, alone,
in East Los Angeles. She never again dated or re-married. Salvador remained
the love of her life until her death.
1963- Eugenia made sure that all her children attended the highest priced
private schools in East Los Angeles.
Armando, at 15 years old, became the man of the house. He attended Bishop Mora
Salesian High School full-time, worked two jobs, and set the standard for the
other Yepes siblings. Elena was academically double-promoted at Our Lady of
Soledad Grammar School, and at 16 years old Graduated from Our Lady Queen of
Angels High School, on a full scholarship to UCLA. She graduated from UCLA
with a Masters degree in English. Both Antonia and Martha also, graduated with
academic honors from Our Lady of Soledad, and Our Lady Queen of Angels, Sacred
Heart of Jesus, and California State University Los Angeles, respectively.
Elena forged her career at UCLA, LACC, and ELAC; Armando at Savin and Xerox
Corporations National Computer Divisions; Antonia at the Los Angeles County
Tax Assessor’s Office, and later the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department; and
Martha, 35 years and counting, at the Los Angeles County Administrative
Offices.
[ (New Times Los Angeles 2000 - Father Ralph J. Murphy, Principal, Salesian
High 1960 -1984) "The gangs did not have a strong influence on the young men
when they were in school, but they had to join because there was a great deal
of pressure from their peers." In a gang, young men could bond in a way that
was perhaps elusive at home. The brutality of the life was the price that many
young men accepted, and still do, willingly. Unbeknownst to his family, Yepes,
who was 13 and already showing his rebellious nature, went the extra distance
and crossed gang lines to join his neighborhood's rival gang. His family
didn't realize he had joined a gang until, one by one, his friends began to
die. By the time Yepes was 18 twenty-seven of his friends were dead.”
"If somebody's nice and polite, you're nice and polite in return. You don't
start assuming things about people who don't happen to look exactly like you,"
says Martha Zavala, one of Yepes' sisters. "George didn't share what his
activities were." ]
George grew up in the Fisher Street house; in City Terrace Park in general;
and in East Los Angeles at large. At Our Lady of Soledad Grammar School, from
1st grade through 8th grade, he was elected class president. At the Maravilla
Housing Projects and Belvedere Park, he garnered All City and All County
Championships in Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Every year at Bishop Mora
Salesian High, he was elected class president, his last 3 years he ran
un-opposed, senior year he was elected Student Body President. At Salesian he
was the outside linebacker at 135 lbs., but would sweat down to 118 lbs to box
as a Bantamweight 35 – 0, 32 knockouts. In his neighborhood, as a juvenile, he
was shot twice, and stabbed three times, all before his 18th birthday. All of
his juvenile activities stopped in 1974 when he began to pursue dual majors in
Art and Business at California State University Los Angeles. Also in 1974, he
was able to join the Public Art Center.
Back in the summer of 1966, at the age of ten, while playing in the Brannick
Street dead end behind City Terrace Park, George had found a blue steal rusted
briefcase full of oil paints. By 1970 he begun his professional career as a
painter, then muralist.
Called "The City's Preeminent Badass Muralist" (L.A. New Times - June 2000),
and named a "Treasure of Los Angeles" in 1997 by Mayor Richard Riordan and the
Los Angeles City Council, painter George Yepes takes no prisoners.
Born in Tijuana, raised in East L.A., and formed by a hard street life of
poverty, gang violence, and womanizing, this painter rises above and beyond
the Chicano genre by calling on classical master works from Velasquez to
Titian for inspiration. Self-taught, with a refined renaissance bent; from
religious iconography to erotica George Yepes brings a confidence and
knowledge of his craft that calls to mind the great Mexican Muralists. Imbued
with a contemporary street sense, his paintings and murals combine the best of
both worlds where bravado meets classical standards. This is a painter who
could have challenged the old greats in the salon, or kicked their asses in
the back alley.
One of the more prolific painters in the Chicano Mural Movement of the late
70's, Yepes gained his early reputation as a ferocious painter when he painted
with notables from Carlos Almaraz and Frank Romero to Gilbert "Magu" Lujan. He
then became an instrumental partner in the mural group "East Los Streetscapers"
until he decided that group painting wasn't suited to his temperament or pace.
With grand scale and furious momentum Yepes has painted over 800,000 square
feet of eloquent social, historical, and sacred images onto the facades of
everything from churches, hospitals and freeway overpasses to album covers.
His album cover for Los Lobos titled La Pistola y el Corazon has won numerous
awards, and is in many museum collections. (Sean Penn and Madonna bought the
original painting for a record-breaking sum in 1989.) His 28 murals are
landmarks in Los Angeles, as are the 21 murals his Academia de Arte Yepes
students have painted. The Academia is his free mural painting academy through
which Yepes has taught nearly 1500 low-income students over the last decade.
His mural painting concepts and designs continue to be studied by graduate
students and scholars across the United States.
"George Yepes dramatizes with iconoclastic vigor the nature of radical art: he
sends you back to your roots. But more than a voyage back to the land of your
ancestors and to the soil that (allegedly) nurtured the soul of your people
(you know the story), the roots that you go back to through the medium of
George Yepes' work are your own: the roots under the ground on which you
stand, all that is buried under you and, for that same reason, you can't
remember. This is George Yepes' insight, encoded in his artwork in the form of
acrylic riddles."
Dr. Roberto Cantu, Professor of English, Spanish, and Chicano Studies
California State University, Los Angeles
This visionary painter has the telescopic eyes of a muralist, the fluid touch
and intimate light of a classical master, the knowledge base of a scholar, the
soul of a wetback, and the heart of a fighter.
But mural painting is only one facet of this intense painters' focus.
Yepes' oevre incorporates religious iconography via his "re-imagination of the
sacred", ethereally beautiful women, modern street violence, Chicano and
Mexican Folklore/Elitelore, world history, and literature in powerful -
sexually charged - atmospheres. Yepes' paintings have been collected by a
widely diverse audience, from Sean Penn, Cheech Marin, Anthony Keidis, and
Robert Rodriguez to Catholic churches on the east side of L.A., and City
Governments nationally.
In 1993-94 George Yepes was partnered with Ricardo Legoreta, the Mexican
Architect, as the duo "Lead Urban Design Team" for the $1 Billion Eastern
Extension of the Metro Red Line of Los Angeles Subway, in charge of designing
seven Metro stations and tunnels. He was chosen for his ability to impact
structure during preliminary engineering - prior to final architectural
design.
In 1998 the State of California chose George Yepes to paint the 70' vaulted
ceiling of the State Archives Museum in Sacramento, the State Capital. This
mural, "The Promise", depicts the emergence of California's Statehood
incorporating elements from Aztec to Greco-Roman mythology.
In 2001 George was called to Illinois and left behind his mark on the city, a
24'x70' mural in Chicago. In Dec. 2001 the Chicano Visions/ American Painters
on the Verge exhibit spearheaded by Cheech Marin, began a fifteen city tour
with plans in the making to travel to Europe and Japan. The exhibit museums:
The San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas; The Smithsonian in Washington DC.; the
National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the El Paso
Museum of Art in Texas; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla,
CA; the Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MI; The Mexican Fine Arts Museum,
Chicago, IL; the University of Houston, Houston, Texas; Saint Louis Science
Center, Saint Louis, MO; The de Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, CA;
Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL; and the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Cheech Marin owns eight George Yepes paintings
as part of his permanent art collection, two of which are included in the
Chicano Visions Exhibit; Yepes' iconographic image, 'La Pistola y El Corazon',
and the exquisite, "Axis Bold as Love."
INTRODUCTION - THE CHICANO SCHOOL OF PAINTING
"The first time I stood in front of a Chicano painting -- it was George Yepes'
Amor Matizado -- I had the same feeling as when I first heard a tune by the
Beatles."
Cheech Marin, Actor
Chicano Visions - American Painters on the Verge
In 2002, Actress Salma Hayek modeled for Yepes (twice), and became the vision
of the "Lady of the Butterflies". Carlos Fuentes, one of Latin America's most
prominent men of letters. The literary impetus for envisioning Salma Hayek's
mosaic of beauty - 1000 faces of the goddess - is inspired by Fuentes' magnum
opus, Terra Nostra - and his immaculate vision of the Lady of the Butterflies.
Also in 2002, Miss Mexico, Suliana Gonzalez, Modeled for the "Calavera China
Poblana vestida de Gala" painting for Yepes' 2003 Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas
Exhibits.
In 2003 San Antonio, Texas - George Yepes completed four more commissioned
paintings for Director Robert Rodriguez' "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" movie.
Two paintings are featured in the movie, and another set of paintings of Salma
Hayek, Antonio Banderas, and Johnny Depp...were included in the Music DVD of
the El Mariachi Trilogy, “Mexico and Mariachis”.
"George Yepes is the rarest of talents. I own several of his paintings, and
whenever someone walks in and sees them for the first time, I have to stand
close so I can catch their jaws before they slam into the ground. George's
work grabs you by the lapels and makes you feel as if you're discovering art
for the first time. He's a master painter in the best sense, the art comes
through him not from him. That is rare."
Robert Rodriguez, Director
Austin, Texas
In 2004 San Antonio, Texas – George Yepes, offered 30,000 sq. ft. of free
studio space; and 168 artists followed the call and inaugurated The Art Dacha
Open Studio movement on First Fridays at the Big Tex Grain Mills and The Blue
Star Arts Complex - the Home of Contemporary Art in San Antonio.
"There is a cultural renaissance occurring here, and George Yepes is making it
happen by bringing his art. San Antonio is quickly becoming the headquarters
of all that is Chicano -- more so than L.A."
Gregg Barrios, Book Editor, San Antonio Express News
San Antonio, Texas
"Painting is the least of George Yepes' talents..."
Courtney Reid, Painter
Hollywood, California
Although Reid proclaims that "Yepes is a Great Fuck," their mutual admiration
for each other transcends the bedroom.
Anna Kevorkian, Staff Writer - New Times L.A.
Los Angeles, California
The Best of San Antonio - Best Art
Artist we'd like to send back to Los Angeles - Readers' Choice & Staff pick:
"George Yepes, the City of San Antonio has spoken: You have been voted out of
town. Cheech's "Chicano Now" exhibit brought a lot of talented local artists
to light, but it also drew one out-of-towner from the depths of East L.A. to
San Antonio's Southtown. California Dreamin': SA readers dream of sending
George Yepes back to L.A.".
Wendi Kimura, Arts Editor - San Antonio Current
San Antonio, Texas
In 2005 San Antonio, Texas - George Yepes began working with, Nashville based,
Gibson Musical Instruments Latin Entertainment Division and The Epiphone
Company, on a new series of Yepes Signature Custom Guitars: Hand-Carved,
Hand-Painted, with M. Swift & Sons Inc. pure 24 karat Gold leaf, Silver leaf,
and copper leaf on Gibson/Epiphone Factory wood. Smooth bodied; meticulously
painted; the surfaces glow with the gilded tones that adorn and possess them.
To date, he has created 20 one-of-a-kind custom guitars. Next musical
artworks... 2 Baby Grand pianos.
In 2006 San Antonio – Austin – Los Angeles: George Yepes began the year with
studios in San Antonio and Los Angeles. And now, in Austin, with movie
Director, Robert Rodriguez.
George Yepes and Robert Rodriguez, creative giants each in his own rite, have
combined their formidable force of talents and given life to new collaborative
artworks. From Yepes' San Antonio & Los Angeles studios to Rodriguez's
Troublemaker Studios in Austin, these dueling freight trains have torn through
the night, and blazed a meteoric trail while creating their dialogue in Art -
and creating a new high water mark for collaborative excellence.
Like Vampires robbing liquorstores from dusk till dawn, George Yepes and
Robert Rodriguez communicate with each other as they communicate with the
world: with Two-Smokin' Barrels.
In 2007 - Stay tuned....
George Yepes
Bunker Hill South Studio
740 South Olive Street, Suite 6 & 7
Los Angeles, California 90014 USA
george@georgeyepes.com