Juan R. Fuentes
When Kathleen was envisioning Watsonville Brillante, she knew that she wanted the four large verticals of the project site to be black and white images. She also knew that all of them should be very strong pieces from an artist who was a native to Watsonville.
This is when our featured artist, and now beloved friend, Juan Fuentes came up. Kathleen had seen Juan Fuentes’ work before at the Pajaro Valley Arts gallery in Watsonville. The show “Hablamos Huntos” happened to be going up the same time as she was writing the white papers which had included details about Watsonville Brillante. She did more research about Juan and decided he was the artist she wanted to use because his art work is so compelling. Not only was it black and white, but he is from Watsonville. He fit all of her requirements and felt that all the artists in Watsonville would support this decision as he is quite famous and well regarded.
At the opening reception to “Hablamos Huntos,” Kathleen introduced herself to Juan’s wife, Michelle Muton, because Juan was occupied talking to others who attended. After the reception, Michelle and Kathleen convinced him to take a walk with them to the project site which was the Civic Plaza Parking Garage in Downtown Watsonville so she could talk to him about her vision. He was dumbfounded, it was a really big garage and he did not know Kathleen nor did he know her work. He shrugged his shoulders and said that it sounded amazing, and so yeah, he guessed she could use his images. She had no idea what he was thinking, but it was obvious to her that he was not convinced this was a real thing. Juan had talked to the Board Treasurer of Pajaro Valley Arts, Judy Stabile, who let him know that Kathleen and her project were indeed very real. She looked at Juan’s website and asked if we could put eight of his images up for a vote before the residents of Watsonville. That first vote had a great deal of participation as it was pre-COVID. We had done in-person voting at the Watsonville Farmer’s Market and at the Watsonville Public Library in addition to online voting through our website. The “Mayan Warrior” or as well call him: “The Strawberry Picker” won more than 50% of the votes and “Hermanita” was a close second.
This is when we began working on Phase 1 which became “The Strawberry Picker” mosaic and the first vertical panel. The Watsonville City Arts Commission approved the image in early August 2019. We placed thousands of tiles at the Muzzio Mosaic Arts Center. The installation of the Strawberry Picker, or “Mayan Warrior” was completed April 2020. After three months we had another community vote. We took the four lowest vote-getters out of the mix of choices then proceeded to add four new images. This vote also took place before the COVID pandemic and we used the same methods to get votes from the community. “En el Cielo” or as we call it “The Apple Picker” won this round of voting with more than 50%. The Watsonville Parks & Recreation Commission approved both images on March 2, 2020 and we began work on Phase 2 just as COVID locked down our county.
“Hermanita” took second place again. With four vertical sections to cover, Kathleen wanted to have equal representation between men and women so we did not vote again. We decided to use Hermaita for Phase 3 and 4. Hermainta was two phases because she is on the larger vertical panel which is comprised of 2400 square feet compared to the previous two which are 1200 square feel each. The whole garage will be completed in ten phases of 1200 square feet. The whole garage is 12,500 square feet.
The final image we used on the last vertical section from Juan Fuentes is “In the Rose Garden,” the one we call “Flower Grower” or Phase 5. Kathleen, with great trepidation approached Juan to ask him to do an Asian woman for us. Juan is a person with integrity, and she had expected him to say no because he is not Asian. He understood her discomfort in asking him and was quick to remind her that he is one of eleven children. He has Japanese sisters-in-laws and many nieces and nephews that are mixed Mexican/Japanese and for that reason, he would not have problem, that he would be happy to make a specific image for us. “Flower Grower” was our most challenging image to recreate with the public because the patterning in her shirt in contrast with the leaves of the roses were so much more intricate than the ones we had previously done. Our experienced volunteers worked on the lower section and our newer volunteers were put to work on the sky area.
A last minute addition was needed in Phase 5. Three weeks before installation, the City manager of the garage asked us to do the section above and beside a bay door which had not been part of our plans. Juan and his family were disappointed that two of the twelve images we allowed the community to vote on were not selected. Kathleen went back to Juan and asked him if we could use the “Rainbow Reader” to fill that space. Volunteers completed the rainbow and the birds, while Susanne and Helga Hess did all of the intricate work to recreate the face and dress. During the past three years, Juan and Michelle have returned to Watsonville and have been special guests at the Muzzio, placing at least one tile in each of the mosaics that represent his work.
We have enlarged and created mosaics for the large five story Civic Plaza Parking Garage with images by renowned artist Juan Fuentes. He currently lives in San Francisco, but grew up in Watsonville and is an alumni of Watsonville High School.
