Author: Downey Arts Coalition

Saturday night, October 8th, was the opening reception for “Art on the Vine” featuring the work of Roy Anthony Shabla.  The artwork and poetry will be on display until the end of the month at Mari’s Wine Bar, 8222 Firestone Blvd, Downey, CA 90241.

“Art on the Vine” at Mari’s Wine Bar is this Saturday, September 10th, starting 6:30PM and going until 1:30 AM. This is the opening reception, but the art will be on display the entire month. This month we feature artists Rocio Alejandra Garcia and Carlos Durazo.

Rocio Alejandra Garcia was born & raised in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. As a child Alejandra was constantly drawing, she had an inclination for the arts. She learned to play piano, glass painting, jewelry making, knitting, welding; she was also involved in the School Theater, choir & ballet. Her parents influenced her love for the arts as they exposed her to poetry, plays, musicals, classical music, folk music, prehispanic art, folk art and modern art exhibits while living in Mexico. She migrated to the United States in 1993 to live with her paternal grandmother leaving her family and career of Architecture behind to accomplished her most desired goal, to obtain a degree from a renowned university in the U.S.

In 2001 Alejandra transferred to USC School of Architecture. It was there were she had the opportunity to take some art classes in ceramics and were she found the inspiration to sketch on a regular basis. It was through her sketches that she was selected as a Drawing teacher assistant for the incoming architecture students during her 4^th year. Although she has not taken a painting class Alejandra decided to paint four years ago while going through difficult changes in her life.

Painting has being her medium of coping with changes and life challenges while raising four children on her own and working full time as a Sr. Project Engineer and Virtual Design & Construction Coordinator at Swinerton Builders. Her paintings reflect “Life” as a concept, an emotion, a cycle and change.

Carlos Durazo was born in Northern Mexico in 1957. He remembers his first art lesson with his grandmother in which she made a kite from materials found around the house. His family immigrated to the United States in 1969. Through junior high and high school, art was his favorite subject. After graduating high school, Carlos worked for General Motors Locomotive Division and continued his studies at East Los Angeles College where he began to think about becoming a visual artist. After working three years for GM, he was laid off. Fortunately, the United Auto Workers Union and GM sponsored a retraining program, which enabled Carlos to attend Otis Art Institute and earn a bachelor’s degree in studio art in 1987.  Soon after, he and his wife Mercedes had an opportunity to move to New York. The plan was to visit for 6 months but the City had other ideas. They lived there for 13 years during which time they had three sons.  Carlos attended CUNY at Queens College and earned a master’s degree in studio art in 1997. Carlos worked for Fortress, NY as an art installer, which gave him the opportunity to see a lot of great art. The Durazo family returned to the West Coast in 2002 and settled in Downey. Carlos became a substitute bus driver for Downey Unified, but is currently a substitute teacher for LAUSD.  Carlos has taught beginning painting and drawing to children and adults at Alhambra Library, Rio Hondo College and Cerritos College.