Monthly Archives :

February 2023

Lauri Kaye

Lauri Kaye

Lauri Kaye 2344 1870 The Tucson Gallery
Lauri Kaye Headshot
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature the Incredible Paintings of Lauri Kaye

Meet The Artist

In The Media…

Learn How Lauri Used Her Art To Provide Hope to Patients and Staff
(PDF Download)

Lauri’s Story

I was raised in a time when parents were much more hands off, giving me a lot of time and freedom to be creative. Drawing, painting and craft making combined with a passion of figuring out how to sell my “goods” were skills I practiced all throughout my childhood. Art school seemed like the natural progression, so I landed in NYC at Parsons School of Design,

The city was an incredible playground to learn and experience new things. I was drawn to graphic design and knew that it was a skill with which I could actually support myself. After working at a design firm in the city, I started my own company called “Sun Design”, perhaps a premonition that I was meant to be living in the desert.


Where did you grow up?

I was raised in Yardley, PA., in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Lots of time was spent outdoors with neighborhood friends where we would only come home when it was getting dark...

Tell us about your family

My older brother and sister and I got along well. Our parents gave us free range in the kitchen, so we experimented a lot and came up with some pretty whacky creations. We loved hosting french toast eating contests when our parents were away.

When did you know that you would be an artist?

I have been drawing as long as I can remember. Our dad was a dentist, and he would bring home supplies for creating molds that used to make chalk. Our driveway was covered with scenery I envisioned. I was always hustling homemade crafts to friends at school in order to make money so I could buy ice cream sandwiches.

What is your favorite media to work with?

While I have experimented with so many types of media, my favorite is still pens and pencils on sketchbook paper. I love the low maintenance aspect and can carry my supplies in my purse so I can create anywhere.

What do you do when you’re not doing your art?

I always start my day doing something outdoors, riding my bike, running, walking or hiking. It helps me feel settled so I can come back home and create. I enjoy experiencing other artists’ creativity, especially street artists, filmmakers and musicians. At home, my husband, son and I love to cook (and eat!) so our kitchen is often a mess with clouds of flour and some form of chocolate.

All Artworks By Lauri

Tucson Gallery Podcast - Meet The Artist with Jessica Gonzales

Jessica Gonzales – Meet The Artist Podcast

Jessica Gonzales – Meet The Artist Podcast 1080 1080 The Tucson Gallery

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

Well, welcome back to another installment of Meet the Artist, the production of the Tucson Gallery, located here in downtown Tucson inside of the proper shops at 300 East Congress, right across from Hotel Congress. Every week I have an opportunity to highlight one of our fabulous Tucson artists. Many of them have work inside of our gallery. Others have work on our website, the Tucsongallery.com. And you can also head over there for other Meet the Artist podcast. You can get up to date information and sign up for our newsletter to find out about our live events and come in. If we have artists doing any painting, wine tasting, agave tasting, all that stuff, check it out. The Tucsongallery.com. And before each of our Meet the Artists segment, before we invite the public in, we have this wonderful podcast. And today we are joined by the one, the only, the fabulous and you must be exhausted, Jessica Gonzales. Hi. So, yes, for the exhaustion. Yes, absolutely. Every time we try to schedule, she’s like, Absolutely. Oh, wait, no. I’ve got 74 things that we can push it. Push it back. You are crazy busy right now. Have you been crazy busy for a while?

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, I have. It kind of feels like I’m waiting for some break in it, and it’s like I have to plan a vacation for that to happen because it keeps going.

Tom Heath

I think your last vacation was you got married or something. Yeah, honeymoon. I’ll get married so I can just want to get a break from the business. Yeah, right. So what are you up to lately?

Jessica Gonzales

 Right now I’m working on a collaboration with Rock Martinez and we’re painting along the Rito River along mural there. Okay, where about? It’s at the end of country club where the Tucson Racket Club is. Oh, nice. Okay. And it’s just right across the bridge and along the retaining walls there.

Tom Heath

A heavily traveled area, so it’ll be well seen, I’m sure. Yeah. And are you mostly into murals at this point? I know you’ve done some origins, which we’ll talk about, but is mostly your life consumed with these huge projects?

Jessica Gonzales

Yes, it is. And I hope to kind of balance that out in the future and do more stuff in my studio. But right now, murals keep me busy around the clock. Painting, has that always been your medium or do you do anything else, like sculpture? I played around with it in college. I enjoy it. But, yeah, painting is definitely my favorite.

Tom Heath

So let’s kind of go back to the beginning then. When did you get started in art? When did you know this was like, a passion for you?

Jessica Gonzales

I’ve been lucky enough to always know it’s something I loved as a kid, and a lot of kids do. But I think my parents, especially my mom, who’s also an artist, she saw a little bit of extra. She saw something special in what I was doing. So she always supported me continuing to do art. So it’s like I always knew I was going to do art. I didn’t know in what capacity, but there was never a question about what direction my life was going to take. So I’ve always felt really fortunate for that reason.

Tom Heath

When you went to school then, was that a focus? Like, when you went to college, was that something you were intent about doing?

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, definitely.

Tom Heath

Okay, and then how did you get into the mural side of things?

Jessica Gonzales

I was always kind of interested in them. I mean, I’ve watched people creating murals around town and was curious about them, but I kind of was just thrown into it because I applied for the City of Tucson Mural Arts program in 2016, and I didn’t think I’d get it at all. I had no experience painting murals, but I had experience painting large canvases. That’s the closest thing to a mural, and I was just really fortunate enough to be selected, and I just was thrown into it.

Tom Heath

So 2016, like, seven years ago, is about when you started doing murals. And then I’m seeing all of these murals. That is a lot of work in seven years.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah. And I didn’t start doing it full time until 2019. Oh, my goodness. You really don’t have any time. Yeah. You’re not just blowing me off. You’re actually busy. Yeah, it keeps me very busy, and it’s kind of a trendy thing right now. So being a mural artist, it’s a good time to be doing it. There’s a lot of people that have been doing it forever, but right now, it’s kind of a sweet spot.

Tom Heath

Well, and you’re doing something right, I think. Was it 2022? You were named the Outdoor Artist of the Year? What was the award you won?

Jessica Gonzales

The best visual artist. Best visual artist. Yeah. Okay. Actually and it’s been a couple of years, not to brag. I’m just saying

Tom Heath

21 and 22 to get that type of award with the type of competition that we have in Tucson, that’s phenomenal. And I don’t know if people fully understand some of the work they see. They might not even know when they go by the realtor theater and they see the Marquee. You do a lot of those, right?

Jessica Gonzales

Not the Marquee, but the show murals. Yeah, I do I do them every month in 191 Tool. Yeah, I repainted the Marquee for 191 recently. And then we do change out the shows too. That’s just words, though.

Tom Heath

That’s just words. I just think it’s interesting because, you know, you have these big projects, and then if you want to get a glimpse of a Jessica Gonzales, that’s really temporary. You got to go to the realtor Theater, take a picture of that wall, because in a month or so, it’s going to change.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah. It’s a really different way to approach mural painting. I have to design it, keeping in mind that it’s going to be changing really soon and it has to be painted really fast, but it has to pop and it has to bring people in. So it’s a little bit more of a graphic art, kind of commercial art, sort of.

Tom Heath

I’m trying to figure out at some point that building just has to grow because there’s got to be so much paint on that wall.

Jessica Gonzales

I’ve actually cut a slice from it and so Joe Pagac started that. Right. And then Danny Martin did it for a while and now I’m doing it and you can literally see the layers of the different eras of muralists working there. It’s pretty cool.

Tom Heath

That’s fantastic. Yeah, it’s really cool. Yeah. That wall is going to be worth something one day if they ever decide to shave off all of that and see if they can salvage it in some way.

Jessica Gonzales

Right. I think that somebody should make something out of it. I don’t know what. Sculpture, jewelry, something.

Tom Heath

And you’re not originally from Tucson. You moved here about what time?

Jessica Gonzales

When I was 12 so 1990. Never mind, never mind.

Tom Heath

Where did you come from?

Jessica Gonzales

I was born in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City. Lived there till I was six, and then my family and I moved to Germany and lived there till I was twelve and then came here. So Air Force,

Tom Heath

when the most recent visual artist award was announced, I remember seeing on Facebook, and if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine, but you were very open and candid about how art helped you through some troubling times as a youngster. Do you mind kind of talking

Jessica Gonzales

about that? Yeah, sure. I was just really introverted and had a hard time kind of in the social aspect of being in school. So I did a lot of art and that started a lot of conversations with my peers. And so I was able to connect with people in some way or at least start dialogues with other students. And that kind of really helped make up for the fact that I couldn’t talk because I was painfully shy. You talk for your images and your art. Yeah, exactly.

Tom Heath

Anyone that sees your work, it’s a distinctive style. It’s very vibrant. It just pops. Everything is just like this explosion of colors. Has it always been that way? Or did you have like a dark period where it’s just black and white?

Jessica Gonzales

Well, I did a lot of drawing when I was younger, so just gray. But I’ve always loved color. I’ve always been really drawn to color and lots of it. And I’ve definitely experimented with other stuff and I actually really enjoy a limited palette and I’m leaning more towards that now in life and a little bit more toned down. But yeah, color is like my best friend Diana.

Tom Heath

And then your murals also have a sense of history and culture. They all seem to weave that in somehow. Obviously it’s intentional, but does that come from someplace special.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, I think it has a lot to do with well, first of all, public art. That it feels like it belongs in the space that it’s in and that it enhances the space and also features the elements, the people in the culture surrounding it. But I’m on this long live or lifelong I’m on this lifelong journey to discover my own identity culturally and just as a person, as an artist. So I’m always kind of thinking about those things and exploring those ideas and a lot of it ends up in my art.

Tom Heath

Okay. Well, it’s amazing to me the amount of symbolism and ideas that can come across in an image and I think you capture really well. And I’m not alone. You have a lot of fans here in Tucson. A lot of fans. Thanks. People come in and they love your stickers. And people from out of town, they’ll grab, like, a bunch of your stickers of your rearls and they’re like, oh, do you know Jessica Gonzales? Like, no. They just love that. And they don’t even realize necessarily that they’re all from the same artist. So you have something that really captures people’s attentions and imaginations.

Jessica Gonzales

Awesome.

Tom Heath

Whether they know it’s you or not. Yeah. Or whether they know it’s a two year running visual artist award or not. Yeah. Tell me about this Tucson together mural. It’s right across the street from the gallery. This came at a very troubling time in Tucson. Tell us about that. Yeah.

Jessica Gonzales

So I was approached about the concept. So it was early 2020 and when everything was crazy and the idea behind it was to for every letter of the word together is pulled from a sign of an iconic kind of Tucson business. And the idea was to just kind of unify Tucson, bring something, a message of hope and togetherness. And I painted it in April 2020 with a mask on barricades so nobody would get close to me. And it was really quiet downtown. It’s quite an experience. It was kind of strange, but yeah, that’s how that came to be. It was just kind of like to sort of uplift people.

Tom Heath

It was anonymous for a brief period. Like, your name wasn’t on that mural of people. Like, who did that? It must have been because you weren’t quite done. Wasn’t quite done. It looked on to the rest of us. I remember seeing the post on Facebook like, who did this? I know, because I saw her painting it from over 6ft away. Yeah. The g is from hotel Congress. And I’m embarrassed to say that I got all of them. And I’m like, where’s that g from? I couldn’t figure out the G. I was looking at the G and someone, like, points at the hotel congress sign, like, right there.

Jessica Gonzales

Right there. Well, that’s what’s so fun about that one too, is it’s interactive in that way

Tom Heath

and your stuff is popping up everywhere. I’m not sure if people are fully aware that you have a comedian on Netflix that you would design a stage for.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, that was an amazing project. The comedian is Cristela Alonzo. She played at the Realtor Theater. She had a show in 2019 when I was painting show murals, and I did one for her. And she liked the mural that I did and kind of followed me. And we sort of talked a little bit about doing something together in the future, but there was no clear direction for what that was going to be. And then she decided to film her Netflix, her second Netflix stand up special.

Jessica Gonzales

And she was apparently talking with her producer about how to make that the stage and the background interesting. And she thought of me and having me come in and paint a mural. So she reached out. It was like surreal and super fun.

Tom Heath

And there might be just too much Jessica Gonzales news, but I completely missed that. My business partners, the ones that helped open the Tucson Gallery, they were watching just Tony Ray Baker and Darren Jones. They were watching Netflix and they got irate because this comedian was using your art. Someone is just copying her style, and they were just so upset. And then they see the credits at their own, like, oh, it is Jessica.

Jessica Gonzales

Oh, good. We don’t have to raise a ruckus.

Tom Heath

No ruckus raising here. It’s just another one of those examples where you don’t always expect to see it’s just nice to see Tucson being represented and respected in the way that it is. Yeah. Are you doing Euros in other cities or is Tucson really all you can do at the moment?

Jessica Gonzales

I have done a few in Albuquerque because my dad owns a vacation rental and I paint them for him at his rental, which is fun. I have done some just outside of Tucson in Saudi’s, and then I have done one in Bisby, but that is it right now. However, my husband and I are planning a road trip this summer, and we’re hoping to paint some murals along the way.

Tom Heath

Breaking news here, folks. You’re hearing it first on Meet the Artist podcast runs by the Tucson Gallery.

Jessica Gonzales

So if you’re in Little Rock or Memphis well,

Tom Heath

listen up little Rock in Memphis You got something special coming your way. When Jessica Gonzales rolls in, you want to hang out and watch her paint. And when you’re in your studio, are you by yourself or do you have people around you? Do you have noise? Do you have quiet? What’s your environment like?

Jessica Gonzales

Nobody around me for sure if I can avoid it. Music, usually, or podcasts. That’s what I like to get in the zone, have some little bit of lavender oil going and just peace and quiet for the most part, which is the opposite of painting publicly.

Tom Heath

I was going to say that I can see why you want to get back in the studio a little bit more. It’s therapy. It keeps me grounded. Well, the excitement people have when they come in, it’s one of the reasons we open the Tucson Gallery, having a place where Jessica Gonzales can display her artwork and get merchandise and other things with those murals on it. The public loves it, and it’s heartwarming to see that kind of gratification. But it was also heartwarming when you created a couple of pieces for the gallery and you posted on Instagram when you showed pictures of them and you said, this is you kind of getting back to your roots. And you were excited by that. And again, talking to Tony, Ray and Darren, we all sort of like, this is why we do it. It’s so nice to have that. So we appreciate that you were open about that and shared that.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, I was really excited for the opportunity to have a reason to get back in the studio. That, to me, was one of the most valuable things of being part of this. My friends outside, anyway. Yeah, it just gave me a reason to kind of reconnect with myself as an artist on a more personal level. And so that’s really, really important to me, and I’m really glad to have the chance to tap into that.

Tom Heath

Well, last question here. As we wrap up, one of the things we wanted to do is also help artists in Tucson get moving if they’re struggling in any way. Is there advice out there for someone that’s getting into either public art or just really trying to find their voice or or maybe has the issue where they’re they’re not able to communicate as as well, verbally or socially and, you know, are there any things that you can pass along? That’s a lot of information. That’s a lot of stuff.

Jessica Gonzales

Well, I would say for anyone who’s trying to start getting into public art, something that I’ve learned along the way is that when you’re painting publicly and you’re painting for clients and things, it’s easy to kind of fall into this kind of groove that is painting, the kind of stuff that people that you think people want to see. And I just think it’s really important to always stick to whatever you’re passionate about, because that’s going to make everything you do really worthwhile in the end. So for me, it’s always coming up with something new, painting something new, some new technique, or like a different style, even just mixing it up all the time. That’s what keeps me engaged with it and keeps me connected to it from an artist’s perspective. So I think that is really important to hold on to. And what was the other question?

Tom Heath

Well, I was just wondering, art was very therapeutic and helpful for you and just kind of curious. Did it just come automatically or is there something you had to tap into? Is there some advice you could give someone that maybe has artistic talent, that’s feeling kind of that isolation that you were feeling, what were some of those steps to move forward?

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah, well, I mean, definitely showing your work. I know a lot of people create work and then are either nervous to show it or feel like that’s a big step. It is a big step, but it’s an important one because you’re never going to be able to really share your thoughts and your work with people and then have conversations that will keep you growing unless you put it out there. So that’s important. And there are all kinds of gallery spaces that offer different types of spaces for different kinds of art. So there’s something for everyone out there. It’s just a matter of being vulnerable enough to do that.

Tom Heath

Yeah, I would imagine that’s the fear. Right? We all don’t really want someone to say they don’t like something we did.

Jessica Gonzales

Yeah. And I think everybody has the choice to explain as much as they want to. Also, I mean, sometimes even just coming up with titles is difficult for me. But you can tell people as much as you want to about your art or it can be a mystery. They can come up with whatever thoughts they have about it, they can interpret it their own way. It’s totally up to the artist to divulge as much information as they want to. But you still want people to see it.

Tom Heath

Well, I don’t know. There’s a twelve year old in Tucson that came here, shy, introverted, started showing her art and now she is here at the Tucson Gallery about to meet a bunch of Rockets fans. You can hear them starting to gather in the background, waving to us through the windows. So hopefully you’re over the Shyness phase and you’re able to talk to some people tonight.

Jessica Gonzales

I mean, yeah, it’s better than it used to be. It’s still challenging, but you got to do it right.

Tom Heath

You got to do it well. Jessica, I really appreciate your time tonight and I’m looking forward to seeing some more of these original pieces come out of your studio.

Jessica Gonzales

Cool. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Tom Heath

You have been listening to Meet the Artist production of the Tucson Gallery here inside of the proper shops in downtown Tucson. We’re at 300 East Congress cross from the historic and venerable Hotel Congress. Every Thursday we have a different artist come in for a session to record the podcast and then it’s a really casual meet and greet with their fans. You can grab a glass of wine, you can check out all the other retailers here inside of the proper shops. And the mission of Tucson Gallery is to really help the world understand how amazing our Tucson artists are and to give our Tucson artists a chance to better engage with their public. So tune in next Thursday for another installment of Meet the Artist. Or better yet, check out our website, the Tucsongallery.com and find one of these live events and come down yourself and meet your your favorite artist. Jessica, thanks again.

Tom Heath

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the Tucson Gallery located inside of the proper shops at 300 East Conga Street in Tucson, Arizona. The mission of the Tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to the Tucsongallery.com for more information about our live events. Listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts and check out the wide selection of art, gifts and other items created by Tucson’s modern, thought provoking and forward thinking artists.

XDJ2 by Tom Fisher Photography

XDJ2

XDJ2 2560 1920 The Tucson Gallery
XDJ2 by Tom Fisher Photography
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature XDJ2 by Tom Fisher Photography

XDJ2, 2022

by Tom Fisher
Photography

Buick by Tom Fisher Photography

Buick

Buick 2560 1920 The Tucson Gallery
Buick by Tom Fisher Photography
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature Buick by Tom Fisher Photography

Buick, 2022

by Tom Fisher
Photography

Spaceman Mural by Joe Pagac

Spaceman Mural

Spaceman Mural 1539 2560 The Tucson Gallery
Spaceman Mural by Joe Pagac
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature Spaceman Mural by Joe Pagac

Spaceman, 2022

by Joe Pagac
Mural on Brick

Surfer Dude Mural by Joe Pagac

Surfer Dude Mural

Surfer Dude Mural 2560 1317 The Tucson Gallery
Surfer Dude Mural by Joe Pagac
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature Surfer Dude Mural by Joe Pagac

Surfer Dude, 2022

by Joe Pagac
Mural on Brick

Loungin' Lizard Mural by Joe Pagac

Loungin’ Lizard Mural

Loungin’ Lizard Mural 2560 1220 The Tucson Gallery
Loungin' Lizard Mural by Joe Pagac
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature Loungin’ Lizard Mural by Joe Pagac

Loungin’ Lizard, 2022

by Joe Pagac
Mural on Brick

Epic Ride Duo Mural by Joe Pagac

Epic Ride Duo Mural

Epic Ride Duo Mural 2560 2165 The Tucson Gallery
Epic Ride Duo Mural by Joe Pagac
Tucson Gallery is Proud to Feature Epic Ride Duo Mural by Joe Pagac

Epic Ride Duo, 2022

by Joe Pagac
Mural on Brick

Tucson Gallery Podcast - Meet The Artist with Joe Pagac

Joe Pagac – Meet The Artist

Joe Pagac – Meet The Artist 1080 1080 The Tucson Gallery

Transcript (Unedited)

Tom Heath

We are back for another installment of Meet the Artist inside of the Tucson Gallery at Proper Shops in downtown Tucson, 300 East Congress, right across from Hotel Congress. And every week we have a chance to talk with a different artist. Some have worked in our galleries, some on our online gallery, and others are just amazing people in our community. Today we have someone that fits all three categories. Welcome to the show, Mr. Joe Pagac. Rhymes with magic.

Joe Pagac

Hey, thanks for having me.

Tom Heath

Absolutely. I think a lot of people, when they see your name on the murals, they’re not exactly sure how to pronounce it, so we always tell them it’s Joe Pagic. Like magic.

Joe Pagac

Yeah, that’s the way to do it here in America. Actually, I just got back from finding some of my old relatives in slovakia, and they pronounce it Pagache. It’s a pastry over there.

Tom Heath

Well, there’s nothing that rhymes with that.

Joe Pagac

We’ll go with Pagac.

Tom Heath

Pagac and magic. And I think that it’s appropriate because people see your work and they’re like, man, there’s some kind of magic going on there. You’ve been a tucson muralist for how long?

Joe Pagac

I started when I was 24, so it’s 18 years. I’ve been doing this full time.

Tom Heath

Wow. What were you doing before that?

Joe Pagac

I was a loan officer for a little while.

Tom Heath

I did not know that.

Joe Pagac

An assistant manager at einstein’s bagels. I worked busting tables at tgi fridays.

Tom Heath

Were you doing art during this time too, or no, you’re just like, you know what? I’m tired of this bagel. I’m going to go climb on a scaffolding and paint something on the wall. And how do you get from bagels to nols?

Joe Pagac

So I was in college, didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. And my sophomore year, I took a drawing one on one class just to kind of fill the space. I needed a full load of credits, and the teacher took me out in the hallway, and she was like, wow, you’re so good at this. Are you an art major? I was like, no. And she was like, you should do it. You should do it for a living. I was like, Nobody makes a living as an artist, right? You know, it’s like the joke is, you know, what is the what does the artist say to the engineer or whatever? Do you want fries with that? So I you know, I was like, really? You think I could make a living at this? And she was like, yeah. So I ended up just switching majors, became an art major. And then when I graduated, I didn’t really know what to do with that. So I put an ad in the paper, artist for Hire. And I think because murals are their own billboards, it’s just I started getting more and more mural calls because I was doing everything at first.

Tom Heath

What was your first mural, do you remember?

Joe Pagac

I think the first mural I did that was for just a total stranger. It was a fence between a guy’s yard and his neighbor’s yard. He had me paint an underwater scene, and he had me include naked mermaids on it. And he had me paint the neighbor’s side too, while she was out of town. And she came home and was like, furious and then actually built a wall right against his fence. But it was a cool mural, and then it was just like just little jobs. And the more murals that did is.

Tom Heath

A mural still there? Can you still kind of see it if you haven’t been driven by there?

Joe Pagac

It’s in the neighborhood over by where Magic Carpet golf used to be.

Tom Heath

Yeah, we don’t want to be too specific with all your fans. We’ll start out a frenzy over there tearing up the neighborhood.

Joe Pagac

I don’t know. I bet if that guy is still in that house, that mural is still there.

Tom Heath

18 years.

Joe Pagac

18 years.

Tom Heath

So you do one and then someone sees that and like, man, this is pretty cool. Can you do one for me?

Joe Pagac

So it was word of mouth. And then I ended up getting hired by an interior designer, and she would actually we were doing a whole bunch of murals up in, like, fancy houses in the foothills, and so it was a lot of tuscan scenes and stuff like that. But I did that for a number of years for her. And the condition was she got to sign my work, but I could use it in my portfolio because she already had a big name going. Okay, so right off the bat, in my mid twenty s, I was already getting these big commissions to paint these Italian murals, and I was getting to paint for three weeks and then go to Italy for two weeks and then paint for three weeks and then go to Mexico. And so it kind of started this lifestyle that I still keep going where as soon as I’ve got money in the bank to leave town, I go travel or hike for five months or whatever.

Tom Heath

In the brief time that I’ve actually known you, you’ve been hiking across the United States, you’ve flown to Hawaii to see a volcano. You flew somewhere to get involved with the avalanche. You’d make snow angels. You just got back from Europe, and somewhere in there you decided you’re going to walk across tucson to raise money for the food bank dressed as a hot dog.

Tom Heath

And I haven’t known you that long, right?

Joe Pagac

This was all in the last year, I think. Everything. You just last six months, right?

Joe Pagac

So, yeah, that’s just how I’ve always kind of lived my life, since being an adult is like, as soon as there’s money in the bank, I hit the road. You and I have different adaptations of being an adult.

Tom Heath

I’m just saying. That’s awesome. And it’s fantastic. And then the way you generate your money, I think brings you enjoyment too, right?

Joe Pagac

Yeah, for the most part. There’s some jobs that I love more than others. I think a lot of the bigger scale stuff gets into more feeling like you’re doing a construction job. And sometimes I’m like hanging off a nine story building on a window washer scaffold and 100 degree heat, and it’s humid and I’m miserable and afraid for my life, and I’m doing that for weeks. So you get there’s some trade offs, right?

Tom Heath

Can go to Hawaii. That seems fair.

Joe Pagac

I think it’s not as glamorous once you start getting into the really large scale murals. The one I’m working on this week is over at FC tucson, which is a soccer club. And it’s indoors, it’s ground level. It’s like a nice flat wall. It’s air conditioned. It’s so nice. And I just put on like, podcasts and audiobooks while I’m working or call friends I haven’t talked to in a while and just chat while I paint. So those are the dream jobs.

Tom Heath

There you go. So if you’re a muralist, the advice is to find the indoor, ground level, air conditioned jobs.

Joe Pagac

Exactly. The only problem is those who don’t advertise for themselves. It’s the scary outdoor ones that keep getting your business.

Tom Heath

Let’s be clear. You’ve done murals all over the United States. You’ve done Washington, DC. Where is Joe padrick art right now?

Joe Pagac

So I have a whole bunch in Washington, DC. I’ve done them in Miami, Las Vegas, La. Tons of them in Phoenix. I have a whole bunch in pecos, Texas. weirdly, because it’s one of those things where once I did one, they kept bringing me back, so I’ve gotten around quite a bit.

Tom Heath

Does your style remain like when you look at a Joe Pagac in tucson, especially with the more recent last ten years, there is some element that people would recognize as being Joe Pagac. Does that sort of carry through? Do you have jacobs riding bicycles in Vegas?

Joe Pagac

Yeah, the one in Vegas, the big one I did was for Buffalo Exchange, and so there’s like buffalo floating on balloons and helping each other up to grab clothes out of trees and stuff like that. So some of that carries over. The ones in DC. I don’t think you would recognize his mind at all. They’re much more realistic. They’re historical people and events and stuff like that.

Tom Heath

I do remember, I don’t know how many years ago, but you did that mural of the postal worker, the jazz musician.

Tom Heath

And that got like national attention because I remember reading about that in a lot of different newspapers.

Joe Pagac

Yeah, so that one has gotten a ton of attention. Some of the murals I do, the one here in tucson, actually, with the people and animals riding bicycles that I did in 2017, I see that everywhere. When I’m traveling, people use it as just if they’re talking about tucson in a magazine or a news article. That one shows up a lot, which is really cool to see.

Tom Heath

So then they don’t get your permission to do that, right? Because it’s a public art.

Joe Pagac

Right?

Joe Pagac

As long as you’re showing the surrounding area, too. If it’s just a street shot, it’s a fair game. And they’re not advertising anything besides tucson for me. I’m not super litigious or anything anyway. I just love having that art go around the world and knowing that people are excited about it and want to use it to represent the city.

Tom Heath

Do you ever reach back out to the drawing teacher that encouraged you?

Joe Pagac

Yeah, you know what I did? I went back and found her years later and I was so excited to tell her that I had made a living at it and she had no idea who I was.

Joe Pagac

She had a lot of students, I’m sure.

Tom Heath

What are you, that pastry guy? pajak.

Joe Pagac

What is that? Although I did recently, like two years ago, I was on a road trip and I looked up my high school art teacher because I took some art classes before and I looked her up. She was in idaho and she was super excited. We went and got dinner together and it was really cool to see her and catch up. Nice.

Joe Pagac

And she still follows me. I think a lot of my art teachers and just regular teachers from earlier life still follow me. I’m friends with them on Facebook and stuff.

Tom Heath

Is there a retirement plan from your list? Is there a transition? Do you start doing more traditional canvas art or are you just always going to be hanging off the roofs?

Joe Pagac

I already am working on I’d really like to get more involved with the national parks and stuff like that because one of my big loves is just being outdoors and hiking and camping. So in the background, in my evenings, I’m home working on a whole bunch of designs and stuff like that for the national park system, and I’m hoping to start getting that going more. One of my dreams would be to just travel from national park to national park in a van or something and just well in there, work on merchandise and artwork for them and then travel to the next one. We’ll see.

Tom Heath

Everything just gets combined into one thing. That’s perfect.

Joe Pagac

Totally. So we’ll see. That’s kind of one of the things I’m pushing for right now. I have a number of kids books that I’ve written and illustrated, but they’re just not quite where I want them to be yet.

Tom Heath

Oh, wow.

Joe Pagac

So I even have printed out hard copies of them, but they’re not quite where I want to put them out in the public.

Tom Heath

So that’s another you said you’re writing them, so you’re doing the story as well?

Joe Pagac

The story illustrations, yeah. And then on top of everything else I’m doing. I have now like four properties that I’ve bought and fixed up over the years and made all fun and quirky and artsy. Just anything I can do where I’m creating something with my hands makes me happy. So construction falls into that really well, actually.

Tom Heath

I remember when we were talking originally about the gallery, and one of the goals here was to help up and coming artists get a little bit more knowledge, exposure, and a chance to meet some of the more experienced and seasoned artists. And I was like, what advice would you give to a muralist that’s starting out? And you said, don’t do it.

Joe Pagac

Right.

Joe Pagac

I think it’s a great if you’ve got what it takes to come out. And you have to be good at art, but you’ve also got to be good at marketing yourself and doing business and doing all the paperwork and stuff like that. On a good year, I would say I do painting a third of the time, and the rest of it is like going to meetings and doing mock ups and doing all the tax work and all that stuff. So it’s not just painting every day. Unless you have an agent, the tax.

Tom Heath

Stuff gets you every time.

Joe Pagac

Tax stuff, yeah.

Tom Heath

When you’re doing these mock ups, I’m assuming there’s a combination, but how often does someone come to you and say, just create us something? Or do they come and say, hey, we want pigs on balloons, or it’s the full range.

Joe Pagac

I honestly I prefer when people have something they want. If someone just says, Create me something awesome, I want it awesome. I want it different than anything else you’ve ever done, but I want it just like your style. That’s really hard.

Tom Heath

That’s where the magic comes in, right? There you go.

Joe Pagac

And sometimes I just get those. Like, I’ll be laying in bed at night, at 11:00 at night. It’s like, I’ve got it and I got to wake up and put it down. But sometimes those are hard. And if somebody comes in, they say, I want a buffalo floating on balloons. I can put that together quick.

Tom Heath

So you’re some of your ones here in tucson, like the whales, was that you or was that a so the whales.

Joe Pagac

The whales was me. It was actually they made me tone it down. Originally, the whales had little sorrow scenes on their backs. They were like little floating islands with birds circling them. And there were scuba divers on bicycles riding on a beach below them and then floating and swimming up to swim with the whales. And they made me tone it down.

Tom Heath

Wow.

Joe Pagac

They were like, that’s a little much.

Joe Pagac

Some of that stuff gets pulled in when you’ve got corporate sponsorship.

Tom Heath

What’s the process then? Do you create something on paper? Is it digital? That exists somewhere? The scuba diving, bicycle riding?

Joe Pagac

So now I do everything on the ipad I switched over a few years ago, just procreate, which is, I think, what every single artist out there uses now. But before it was like pencil drawings, and then I’d scan them into the computer and try to manipulate them in photoshop a little bit and then go from there. But yeah, I mean, I have so many mural designs and just art designs in general that because a lot of times it’s like three or four designs will go to a client and they shoot down three of them. They’re all just sitting there unused and.

Tom Heath

Unseen and then scaling it to a large building. Is it math?

Joe Pagac

It’s just a grid. Like geometry was actually a really useful class.

Tom Heath

Geometry? Geometry.

Joe Pagac

Not just the art for all of this stuff, for sculpture and art. And I do a lot of building stuff for hotel congress for years, building the Taco hand holes and the taco and the hands and all that. It’s all geometry and construction stuff. But yeah, it’s just a grid. I put a little grid on the drawing and then a huge grid on the wall. And I just fill in square by square, kind of where stuff is going to go roughly. And then from there, once I kind of know where stuff is going, I just learned the hard way. It’s like you’re up there on the wall and you’re like, there’s no way a nose is this big. And then so you make it smaller and then you get down after a couple of hours of painting and realize you made it way too small. So I just trust the grid. It gets things to look right in the end.

Tom Heath

Some of your projects. Is it there’s a sculpture coming, I think, or is it out?

Joe Pagac

The sculpture is done. We’re just waiting for the install. But it’s going right up on the river path between it’s like St. philip’s Plaza and the retail racetrack. So it’s a Havalina riding a tandem bicycle. It’s riding on the front and you can sit on the back and take photos with it and stuff like that, but it’s life size and it’s going to be super cool. It’s my first bronze sculpture. I’ve got a sculpture down in the airport already between the ticket counters that I did, that I did all by hand. But this one’s had the help of a foundry.

Tom Heath

Do you have any idea of the release date for that tandem bike?

Joe Pagac

I don’t know. We’re hoping to get it in the next week. We actually almost installed it this week, but there’s crazy weather going on and we didn’t want to install it while it was snowing. So I think it’s going to go in this coming week, but I think we have to let it set up with the concrete and stuff like that. So I think next month will be the unveiling and I’ll definitely let everyone know about it.

Tom Heath

A couple of last questions here. These are just for my benefit. But do you work on multiple projects at the same time? Or are you one and then move on to the next?

Joe Pagac

No, I always have like ten or 15 projects in the pipeline that I’m in different stages.

Tom Heath

That’s why I can never get a hold of you.

Joe Pagac

Right, yeah. So there’s always like the one or two that I’m currently painting and then the ones that I’m working on mock ups for, and then ones I’m going to initial meetings for calls. So it’s a constant thing.

Tom Heath

And then all these cities where you’re putting up murals. Is tucson really as special as I think it is with the amount of murals we have here? Or is this really something we have across the country? And it’s just I see it because I’m in tucson.

Joe Pagac

No, I think tucson has got a couple of great things. One that I noticed is we have a huge painting season. Like you go anywhere else and it’s rainy or it’s snowing or it’s just not good for painting. So it’s really good to paint here because you can paint almost year round. The other thing is, tucson is just super supportive of the arts in general. People like to put their money into it. They like to put the press on it. They go and take photos with it and support it with their own pocketbooks if they can. It’s a really supportive city. And in general, we also have less vandalism of murals here. I mean, occasionally stuff gets tagged, but compared to a lot of cities, there’s plenty of cities out there that you just can’t keep a mural up. People tag over it within days and it’s just destroyed. tucson is a great place for murals, and I think there’s very few cities like that in the country that really are as supportive and have that many muralists. But I think one of the things is that tucson

Joe Pagac

is drawing them in and the ones that are coming up are like, really getting supported well and can make a living at it, so it makes it easier to I was.

Tom Heath

Thinking of just from the talent standpoint, but without the community support, without the respect, I guess. Yeah. It doesn’t matter how talented you are if you can’t paint because someone’s not going to pay you or they’re going to tag it or it’s going to be snowing.

Joe Pagac

Right?

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Joe Pagac

And I think that’s what keeps a lot of the talented people here. It’s supportive, actually. When I graduated college, I was talking to all my classmates and was like, yeah, what are you guys doing when you graduate? And every single person was going to Los Angeles or New York, and I was like, Well, I’m going to stay here. nobody’s staying here. I’m going to see what I can do here if there’s no artists here.

Tom Heath

Were you born in tucson as well?

Joe Pagac

I was born in tucson, but for a number of years, I was one of the only muralists here working. So slowly, slowly, more murals have come up, and now there’s a huge community. But for a long time, I was like the only guy out there that was getting the calls I think made it.

Tom Heath

Do you have influences? Do you follow people on Instagram that you look at their stuff or you just don’t?

Joe Pagac

I’m not super into social media, and so I go on and post stuff on there, but I’m not really into it.

Tom Heath

I know you have time. You don’t have to have time, right?

Joe Pagac

And if I do waste time on there, it’s on reddit. I don’t know. And I’m not following any art stuff on reddit either. It’s like just all garbage. So I try to delete it when I can occasionally reinstall it.

Tom Heath

Where can people find what you’re posting? What’s your instagram? Facebook.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Joe Pagac

So my Instagram, I have Joe padg, which is my art stuff, and then Joe padget the person, is all my other stuff. I’m up to my hiking and traveling and stuff like that. The hot dog hike that I’m putting together to raise money for charity.

Tom Heath

Let’s talk about that.

Joe Pagac

Oh, sure.

Tom Heath

First of all, what is this and when is it happening?

Joe Pagac

So when I was hiking the Pacific crest Trail, I was doing a lot of wearing costumes while we were hiking. And I jokingly was talking to some of the people I was hiking with about getting hot dog costumes next, and nobody was into it, but I thought when I got home, I would do it. And then I thought, well, if I’m doing that, I should do it for charity and make a spectacle out of it. And then I mentioned to a number of people, and they were all really into it and wanted to join. So I decided just turned it into a big thing. So we’ve got 30 people dressed up as hot dogs hiking from March 15 and 19th. We’re going through the rincons and the catalinas. It’s going to be about 20 miles a day. So it’s going to be brutal. It’s going to be a hard hike. And then the hope is to just make a spectacle and steer people toward donating to the food bank. So you can go to Hotdoghike.com.

Tom Heath

I’m surprised that you’re all wasn’t taken already.

Joe Pagac

I know

Joe Pagac

it was a little more expensive than Net, but I paid the extra for it.

Tom Heath

Hotdoghike.com.

Joe Pagac

Hotdoghike.com. So that has all the information about it, and you can donate there. And then my other ones, it’s just Joe Pagac or Joe Pagac the person.

Joe Pagac

And then if you go on Google and type like Joe Muralist tucson, that will pull me up, and you can find me from there.

Tom Heath

Yeah, you can go on Google and find yourself with that easy to search. You’re doing something well, right?

Joe Pagac

Yeah.

Tom Heath

I appreciate it. I appreciate you being a part of the tucson Gallery. You’ve been kind of an anchor to help get this started as well. Your reputation people, when they see your name, they know it’s something of value and something that’s good for the art community. So we appreciate you being a part of that and look forward to kind of what the next projects are going to come out and can’t wait to ride a tandem bike with a Havalina.

Joe Pagac

Yeah, cool.

Tom Heath

That’s one of those things that when I was in Ohio, I never thought I would say.

Joe Pagac

Right, cool. Well, thanks for having me.

Tom Heath

Absolutely. And if you want to hear any of our other artist interviews, it’s called Meet the Artist. It’s on our website, the Tucsongallery.com. We have a new feature each week and then it’s followed up by meet and greet here so you can come live and hang out with the artist for a couple of hours, get a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, chat about process. It’s pretty casual and laid back. And then all of these are archived on our website. They’ll be on spotify and other places soon. It’s all called Meet the Artist. It’s a production of the tucson Gallery here inside of the proper shops, 300 East Congress. And tune in next week to find out some more exciting news from the art world.

Joe Pagac

All right, cool.

Tom Heath

Thanks, Joe.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 4

Thank you for listening to Meet the Artist. This is a weekly production by the tucson Gallery located inside of the proper shops at 300 East conga Street in tucson, Arizona. The mission of the tucson Gallery is to support local artists by providing a space to show their art, a forum to engage with their audience, a virtual presence to connect with global patrons, an outlet to earn a fair price and an opportunity to hone their business skills. Head over to the Tucsongallery.com for more information about our live event. Listen to other Meet the Artist podcasts and check out the wide selection of art gifts and other items created by tucson’s modern, thought provoking and forward thinking artists.

Joe Pagac – Meet The Artist | Event Photos

Joe Pagac – Meet The Artist | Event Photos

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