San Jose's Francisco Vargas in his studio with a piece of art he hopes to sell
Photo
by Richard Wisdom
By Bill Strobel -
San Jose Mercury News
(Published Friday, March 15, 1985)
He found world of art behind door
Life, Francisco Vargas believes, is "like a door. You can stand in front of it and bounce your head against it again and again. Or, you can open it and see what's on the other side."
Vargas 33, a self-taught San Jose Artist, admits he collected plenty of lumps on his own head before he opened the door and looked on the other side.
As a kid, he was in trouble with the law and spent some time in jail, he said, "for joyriding in a stolen car. but I did a lot of things I didn't get caught at. I was lucky."
One of the things Francisco did was when he was a kid was graffiti. "I used to sketch stuff when I was making a phone call in a booth and on buses," he recalled. "I see a lot of kids doing the same today, writing on walls and that sort of stuff.
"I think they have potential and that somebody ought to do something to encourage them to use their talents in other ways. The trouble is that there is always somebody who wants to shoot you down if you want to do something better. You tell people you'd like to be an artist and they tell you to forget about that nonsense and get a job in computers where you can make some money."
Vargas decided to seek something better about five years ago when he was working as a janitor. He saw a sign painter at work and asked him questions about lettering and painting. And then he went home and practiced.
From "Frosty" the commercial artist, he learned the basics to do Christmas scenes on store windows. From another friend, he learned to how to make glass etching. His work on the etchings in various lounges through out Santa Clara County recently earned recognition by "Signs of the Times," a national magazine which keeps tabs on the latest innovative signs.
In a contest that drew more than 2,000 entries from artist through out the nation, he won fifth place for a lettered, hand cut and sandblasted the design of an angel between two pillars at the entrance to "Garfield's," a Palo Alto lounge.
Vargas, has converted a shed behind his home into a studio, has now turned to painting posters which he hopes to print and market, before he opens another door. And if he can't make it right off, he'll not worry about it to much.
"You get a job and maybe you make a $1,000 in a week and think, wow, art is great. Then you don't make a penny for three weeks. So, you go out and sell salami in the bars. You don't sit around waiting for somebody to call you, you go out and do something," he said.