‘Empathy blooms peace’
Columbus muralist on Black Latino experience
“Tap into your culture and where your family comes from.” — recalling the iconic ”flower power” photographs from the 1967 March on the Pentagon. Overhead, drones circle the air along with guardian angels. “I grew up Catholic. You always do the little cross before you leave the doorway, so that your angels are protecting you,” Peguero said.
Columbus-based artist Ariel Peguero showed up to a recent interview with The Dispatch on a skateboard.
The muralist, whose work has been featured by the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, the Short North Alliance's Summer Spray exhibition series and this year's Columbus Latino Heritage Month art show (happening Friday night), says skating has taught him a lot about painting.
“You fall, or you try one thing over and over again the same way until you get it right,” Peguero, 30, told The Dispatch. “I keep painting and painting until I feel like I get that feeling that I landed it.”
Standing in front of “Empathy Blooms Peace,” a mural he painted near East Goodale and North High streets, Peguero explained that much of his art is inspired by his family's experience as immigrants and his identity as a Black Latino person.
Peguero's parents came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic, and he grew up in Boston and Greater Columbus, speaking Spanish at home.
“My mom would tell me stories on the stuff that she would face — figuring out where the grocery store was and where the mail was and … enrolling us in school was really tough. She would call places, and as soon as they heard her accent, they would just hang up,” he said.
“I feel like I'm in a little bit of a no man's land sometimes because of the way I look. For Black people, I'm not Black enough; for white people, I'm not white enough; for Hispanic people I'm not Hispanic enough.”
The Columbus College of Art and Design graduate said the phrase “empathy blooms peace” is a mantra that fuels his work.
Drones, angels and birds of prey
The Ohio Hispanic Coalition recently commissioned Peguero to paint a 15by-30-foot mural at its Columbus office.
Titled “The American Dream is for Sale,” it depicts an immigration journey.
“I ended up painting all these different things that happened in my life. I ended up actually getting a therapist because I was just tapping into things,” Peguero said of the work.
The mural features elements of graffiti, Mexican folk art and Catholic religious symbolism. There are workers wearing a Mcdonald's uniform and a hijab and a mariachi musician in front of the border wall. A bald eagle (which Peguero emphasizes is a symbol not just of the U.S., but also of Mexico and Central America) pushes down a soldier's gun, which has flowers in its barrel
‘We see you’: shaping how society sees itself
Sipping an espresso drink at One Line Coffee in the Short North, not far from his “Empathy” mural, Peguero said he enjoys making public art because it can shape how society sees itself.
“The most important part about (public art) is representation of communities, individuals and different cultures,” he said. “It's about giving people some pride, something to look up to and show them like, ‘Hey, we see you, and we're happy with the way that you've impacted this community.'”
Peguero practices painting murals using a computer program and a virtual reality headset — something that has become more common among muralists in recent years.
For other young artists from immigrant backgrounds, he offered this advice:
“Tap into your culture and where your family comes from. Figure out … why they're the way they are and why you're the way you are. And try to find the commonalities and the differences.
“I feel like unfortunately, we become really desensitized to our families and the amazing things that they do all the time and the ways that they've pulled themselves up,” he said.
Several of Peguero's paintings will be featured at “El Futuro,” an art show dedicated to Latino artists happening at 6 p.m. Friday at Wild Goose Creative, 188 Mc Dowell St., as part of Franklinton Fridays.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fnsgaz.
pgill@dispatch.com