An Artist of Unique vision and perspective

By Don Bain
Published in La Voz September 10, 2003

Stevon Lucero has followed the path of a true artist most of his life, over thirty years of it in the metropolis of Denver. He has produced a prolific body of work in three different styles” Neo-Precolumbian, Representational, and Metarealism.

 

Lucero was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming in a family far removed from the typical Latino experience and community. Asked about his childhood, it becomes apparent he walked an arduous path in early life, but looks back upon it with a philosophical perspective. “I had friends, but I was a lonely kid. I can't say I was unhappy but just kind of dazed and confused. There was a lot of pain in my life,” he said. But he credits the difficulties of his youth as the source of the creative muse within him. “The great thing about art – it becomes a vehicle - to use art not just as a creative process, but as a way of resolving those energies within you. Art becomes the process by which you reveal these truths unto yourself and liberate yourself. Liberating yourself allows you to truly heal.

 

He began his study of art as soon as the opportunity arose in public school and continued his studies through high school and the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He wanted to learn the techniques of the old masters but was impatient. During his junior year, he managed to enroll in a senior art class taught by a Professor Evans, admittedly the best of the art instructors there. “I was observing him doing one of his paintings and I saw how he did it. I took his technique and painted a picture but it was in my style.” One day the instructor walked by the painting, not knowing Lucero was in the room. He stopped and gave the painting an intense inspection. Evans then remarked to another teacher, “He's using my technique.”

 

Having heard this, Lucero knew he was ready for the city. He left school and moved to Denver only to learn nothing is that easy. He had a hard time getting established, but slowly began to meet other artists and visionaries and gained their respect. Among these were Tony Shearer, Ernie Gallegos and the already world renowned Ramon Kelly.

 

His lawyer gave him an introduction to Kelly and the master artist saw promise in the young Lucero. “His wife really liked me – Ramona was just wonderful – I guess she could see my pain, he said. They helped him find a job and Ramon gave him some pointers on the creative process. “That was my introduction to being Chicano. Growing up in Laramie, I was very much aware of being Chicano, but you weren't tied in – I never saw Mexican weddings and the like. The Kellys kind of adopted me and they would invite me to their home for birthday parties where they'd break piñatas and observe all these wonderful traditions.”

 

By 1992, Lucero was selected to work on the gigantic mural representation of an Aztec city for the Museum of Natural History Aztec exhibit. This was a work of staggering significance, depicting hundreds of people in authentic dress and roles produced in a stunning photo-real style. This heroic accomplishment was destroyed after the exhibit – only photographs remain to attest to its beauty.

 

To this day, Lucero continues to work in all three genres simultaneously, rather than as a progression of artistic periods. His representation style contains the uncanny photo-realism of the Aztec mural. His Neo-Precolumbian works reveal the insight of one who was there, or at least ancestral memory. He takes the icons found on pyramids all through Central America and makes them new and vivid without compromising their symbolic meanings.

 

His Metarealism continues to stimulate and confuse. He attempts to two-dimensionally represent perceptions from the non-physical realm: life, being, nothingness, growth, light, darkness, time and space intertwine to create a view of realities hidden from most of us. Many of these contain graphic images reminiscent of abstract sculpture.

 

His recent works tend to contain elements of all three styles. In Light Bringer, hope and knowledge soar through time and space from out of the cities of the present. In Quixote and Me a conquistador, which incorporates images of the spirit self, the fool and the wiseman, is melting into time and space.

 

Lucero's work is currently on display at CHAC, 772 Santa Fe Drive, through September 13. He will also have a booth at this weekend's celebration of El Grito. Beginning Oct 3 and running through th month he will have an exhibit at Reveluciones, 719 W. 8 th Ave. In Nov. 6-28 his work will be at Quetzalli, 928 W. 8 th Ave. Watch La Voz Nueva for an announcement of a Lucero show at Rosa Linda's Mexican Café to benefit their annual Thanksgiving feast.