"I am one of the very lucky people,” Ajijic artist Jesús López Vega told me.
“I was one of the kids in the art classes sponsored by Neill James. I’ve grown up and now live being able to express some of my inner feelings and dreams and confusion through my art.
“Neill James recognized that we were capable of art. She knew that if the people of this area had been creative back to the time of the Aztec, then we had that creativity, too. We just needed someone to motivate us, to show us the way.”
Neill James was a travel writer and had traveled and lived in many far-flung areas of the world before she was injured climbing Popocatépetl (the volcano near Mexico City) and then, when she was nearly recovered, was injured again when she sped off to Michoacán in 1943 to see the eruption of Parícutin (the volcano the emerged from a cornfield in full view of the startled farmer).
She later selected Ajijic as the perfect spot to completely recover her strength. She not only stay on (until her death in the 1990s) she hired a teacher, Angelita Aldana to tutor local children.
Jesús explained, “We got to go to class every day after school. First we had to study our school lessons for an hour, then our reward was the painting. Neill James had a mission for us, and we have to continue that mission for today’s children.
"That's why I return week after week to help the kids in the Saturday children's art program that is co-sponsored by the Lake Chapala Society and the Ajijic Society of the Arts -- to give the next generation the help I received.”
Then Jesús repeated, nearly word for word something he'd told me in an interview with Ajijic muralists back in 2002: "Art is a way of communication that comes through from our soul, from our spirit. It speaks the truth. That may not always be pretty, but it needs to be heard, and it needs to be shared."
Jesús López Vega is no stranger to designing and painting murals. By the time he was 15 years old, Jesús had completed his first mural entitled "Gladiators" at Giano Junior High School in La Puente, California. In the intervening years, he's painted four murals in Chapala area schools, and another in a Portland, Oregon gallery, the mural of Michicihualli (the spirit of the lake) on the side wall of his Ajijic studio, and his most recent major work, The Birth of Michicihualli – a giant stairway mural in Ajijic’s Casa de Cultura. Jesús began painting private murals in homes in the United States, and here in Mexico (like this lovely Virgin of Guadalajara) in the 1980s.
There are three Lopez Vega brothers – Jesús, Antonio and Margarito are all artists and all alumni of the Neill James classes for the children of Ajijic 50 years ago. (Some readers may also know sister Margarita – Rita who has helped visitors and local residents at the front desk of La Nueva Posada for many years.)
Neill James selected two of her most promising students to attend the art institute in San Miguel Allende. Brother Antonio not only succeeded in the classes there, he eventually was selected to be on the respected art school’s faculty. He remained in that position until he returned to Ajijic a couple of years ago. You’ll read more about the other Neill James student who attended the Art Institute – Javier Zaragosa -- in our next post about Ajijic’s muralists.
While Antonio was working in San Miguel, Jesús has built a following of admirers here in Ajijic – and in the United States where he lived for several of his younger years. Meanwhile , more of the Neill James students, combined their efforts on a patriotic mural featuring Miguel Hidalgo in the entry of the school across the street from the Templo de San Andrés on Marcos Castellaños (pictured at left below).
In the center shot taken about 7 years ago, Jesús was putting the finishing touches on Education and Culture in the Saul Rodiles Piña school on Hidalgo in Ajijic. His other school murals include two in his high school, the old Prepatoria Chapala building on Pedro Moreno in Chapala, and in a California junior high school.
At right above, Jesús shows the design and plans for the huge recent mural he completed in Ajijic’s new Casa de Cultura. That painting entends up through two stories and onto the ceiling as the spirit of the lake emerges from the waters produced by her father, the rain god Tlaloc.
Visit the gallery of Jesús López Vega at the intersection of Ocampo and Rio Zula in western Ajijic, We know you’ll be as enchanted with his work as we are. From time to time he teaches print making, and often you can also meet his brother Antonio in the gallery or studio.
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