Rafael Navarro

Phoenix-based Rafael Navarro works with a diverse and unique style in painting, sculpture, and assemblage that includes Catholic symbolism, guitar strings, family photos, and a bird’s foot. Born in Mexico City, Navarro had nearly completed a degree in veterinary medicine when he came to Phoenix expecting to stay for four months. He’s been here 16 years.

On a sweltering Saturday morning, I spent a few hours with Navarro at the Phoenix Park ‘n Swap. As a swap meet novice, I had envisioned dusty, tarnished furniture and jewelry of treasure chest origins; decaying family photographs; glasses or antique cameras. As most of you know, that’s a flea market. Or an antique show. Instead, I was dropped into a “Made in China” paradise.

So who knew a swap meet chat could involve Frida Kahlo, Legend City, Playboy bunny nose studs, James Turrell, limits of identity, and a history of the Phoenix Art scene? Here’s a sampling of a great conversation had between loudspeaker announcements.[cut]

[b]RA:[/b] What inspires your work as an artist?

[b]RN:[/b] It’s difficult to say. Sometimes when I hear people talk, or listen to a song, or see a shape…there’s a junkyard near my studio and I find a lot just by looking at an object.

[b]RA:[/b] Which other artists do you admire?

[b]RN:[/b] Cubists…Picasso, Braque. I like the Surrealists, especially Magritte. A lot of his pieces have such a sense of solitude. When I look at my pieces, I see that solitude. Single objects.

[b]RA:[/b] You have a piece with three apples sitting on a shelf…

[b]RN:[/b] Sometimes I don’t know where the images come from. I don’t keep a sketchbook, I just have it all in my head, and I keep working and reworking the pieces. If you see my work, it all looks different. You may think it belongs to different people, but when they are together, you can start making connections. The apples are like a hidden way of showing the sacred heart. In Mexican culture, because of the religion, you see a lot of images related to Christ and the sacred heart, and together, with the indigenous beliefs, you see connections to the cycle of life.

[b]RA:[/b] Is symbolism a major part of your work?

[b]RN:[/b] Yes, but it’s not very obvious. Sometimes I don’t even notice it until later. I finish a piece and some time passes, and later I see things.

[b]RA:[/b] Look—lingerie…I want to see old jewelry and books. This is all new.

[b]RN:[/b] It’s all made in China.

[b]RA:[/b] Washing machines. I’m disappointed.

[b]RN:[/b] One time I came here to try to find an old guitar. I don’t know what people do with their old instruments.

[b]RA:[/b] I thought this would be a little more like a flea market I went to in Budapest, old treasures, weird stories.

[b]RN:[/b] It’s amazing that people never travel. I was in an English class and there were some photographs of Italy and the teacher asked us to describe them. All one girl saw was a dirty city. But I saw old buildings with history—the patina on the walls, street scenes. In the US, everything is new. Old buildings disappear.

[b]RA:[/b] They’re bulldozed over.

[b]RN:[/b] It’s really sad. In Mexico City, there are so many old buildings. You feel like you have been transported to the past [i](old Mexican music starts playing here—no joke).[/i] You just wander around, among old spirits. When I went back, I was amazed by the past. Imagining all these people living and working so long ago.

[b]RA:[/b] So how has a life in two different cultures surfaced in your art?

[b]RN:[/b] I feel like Art should be universal. People try to put you in a box, label you a Chicano artist or a Latino artist, and I wonder about these things. What does that mean? The other day I saw a man had a sign at First Fridays that said “Colombian jewelry,” and I wondered what that meant. Does it mean jewelry from Colombia? Or did he make it and he is from Colombia? Does that make it Colombian? Because I’m Mexican, is my art Mexican art?

[b]RA:[/b] When I interviewed women in visual arts in Prague, they all complained about being labeled “women artists” and their work being categorized as “women’s art.” They said, “I just want to be an artist.” Of course, I think each person sees the world based on personal identities and ideas and backgrounds, but there is also a lot more similarity than we want think about.

[b]RN:[/b] If you have no information about the artist, and just look at the piece, could you tell if it was made by a woman or man, someone from Europe or . . .

[b]RA:[/b] Do you read the descriptions in museums?

[b]RN:[/b] I first look at the work, and then I read what the card says. I feel like sometimes you need to read to understand intention, but also to come up with your own conclusion.
With Frida Kahlo, I understood more of her work from learning more about her life and her suffering. You see images and it’s just amazing. Someone with all that pain did something like that, with those situations, that motivation.

[b]RA:[/b] Rugs…wigs…punk jewelry.

Vendor: We have nose rings.

[b]RA:[/b] I should get a new one.

Vendor: There’s a Playboy bunny.

[b]RA:[/b] If you don’t have a nose stud I like, I’ll buy something else.

Vendor: Well, I need to sell something, so that’s good.

[i]I walk away with a pair of earrings. No Playboy bunny today. Though I am promised half-off my next purchase.[/i]

[b]RN:[/b] I like Phoenix Art Space’s, “If you don’t like the art scene in Phoenix, do something about it.” For a while, artists would leave here, move to LA and New York. And how are the Arts going to grow here when everyone keeps leaving? They just complain about it, but they don’t do anything.

[b]RA:[/b] It’s a good way to motivate people. I’m guilty of having complained for a long time; for a long time, nothing ever felt like enough. We’re a huge city, yet it’s as if we’ve grown so fast and it’s hard to keep up. But I’ve noticed in the four years I’ve been gone that there is so much more happening now. People are more active, there so many more publications, galleries, events. Places like Paper Heart and the Trunk Space showing visual art but pairing it with live music and performance really helps boost the collaborative spirit. Artists working in different mediums can really feed off each other.

[b]RN:[/b] One thing that worries me is all the developers moving in, because the prices of buildings are all going up in the Art areas. And the artists won’t be able to afford them. My intention in coming here was to eventually go to a bigger city. But I stayed here. I was going to go to Chicago or New York. But now this is home.

[b]RA:[/b] You come from the most highly-populated city in the world.

[b]RN:[/b] There is such a sense of people and history there. I grew up with cultural activities everywhere. If you didn’t have something to do on a Sunday evening, you could take the subway and go to an Art film or a concert. So when I came here, it was weird because everything is spread out, you have to drive everywhere.

[b]RA:[/b] So which Phoenix artists are making really innovative work right now?

[b]RN:[/b] Legend City, but they’re not open all the time. Randy Slack is there—he’s one of the best. There’s a lot of them. They are some of the same people who were 3 Car Pile-Up—that was Randy Slack, David Dauncy, and Sarah and Angel.

[b]RA:[/b] They have been so important and so unique to the art scene for years . . . so do you think people are still moving away from Phoenix?

[b]RN:[/b] People are starting to realize that we’re growing. People tell me to take my work elsewhere. LA or New York. But I want to stay here.

[b]RA:[/b] So what else takes up your time?

[b]RN:[/b] I go to school, I work. But it’s always related to art. I’m fortunate that I have assisted other artists. I learn so much from them, and I take classes. And then I start putting everything together. Mixing materials—wood, different kinds of metals. Some gallery owners don’t like how I use different materials and styles. They think it’s inconsistent.

[b]RA:[/b] How do you feel about that?

[b]RN:[/b] I like the feeling of doing whatever I want. I imagine something in wood, but it ends up looking better in ceramics. But I wouldn’t want to be stuck working just in ceramics.

(Passport holders for sale)

[b]RA:[/b] So if you could take a trip tomorrow, where would you go?

[b]RN:[/b] Italy. I’d like to stay there and do woodcarving, or work in stone or glass.

Pause to look at fake plants.

[b]RN:[/b] At the SMoCA recently, I saw a Fritz Scholder show. And nobody really made a big deal about it. But I think he was one of the best artists we have here in Arizona.

[b]RA:[/b] They have great exhibitions. I always think back on the Wolfgang Laib show. There was one piece, I don’t remember the name, with a milky liquid someone would pour over that sleek slab of stone. The stone was flat, and it looked like the liquid would run right over the edges. But it stayed, it was a little thick, spread out over the stone. It really played with concepts of material and movement…stillness. It throws you off.

[b]RN:[/b] I liked the James Turrell show. That room with the lights. I felt suspended in air. I was standing in there alone. It was really wonderful. It’s amazing what just light in spaces can do.

[b]RA:[/b] I saw his work at the MoCA in San Diego recently. I’m always awestruck standing in some of his rooms. And a little scared.

[b]RA:[/b] Is your son interested in art?

[b]RN:[/b] He was, but he’s more into basketball now. When I was a kid, I was always drawing, and it was a struggle with my dad because his idea of work was physical work, and he’d get mad when he saw me drawing. But I have a brother in Mexico City who is doing very well as a graphic artist, and I told my dad, “you see?” And now my dad gets it…my brother helped put together a catalogue of international poster art. It’s much bigger there. Here it’s just advertisement. But so much poster art in other places is social commentary.

At Rafael’s studio, looking at painting, sculpture, and assemblage.

[b]RA:[/b] (Looking at a target in a painting’s background). The target reminds me of something…a background purpose—something forgotten but yearned for behind the immediate. When did it begin?

[b]RN:[/b] I didn’t do much painting until one day when I opened my dumpster and found an old canvas someone had thrown away. I kept working at it until it turned out.

Rafael takes out a painting of a large green pear. Its museum card might read: oil on canvas; perfectly placed, playable guitar strings…” Yes, you can play the pear. Just another atypical touch.

[b]Rafael Navarro will be featured in the upcoming “Big Works” at the Herberger Theatre Center, Oct. 6, 2006-Jan. 7, 200; and in a group show at the Tilt Gallery opening December 8. Visit his website at www.navarroartes.com for a glimpse of his neo-Surrealist painting, sculpture, assemblage, and other mixed-media. [/b]