Joe Wizan

Happy Birthday Joe Wizan!!

Joe Wizan was born today in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, in 1935, but grew up in Los Angeles, California. He was a film producer credited with work on many films. Wizan served in the National Guard and attended UCLA. Beginning as a talent scout in the business, he was head of 20th Century Fox's motion picture division in the 80's. Wizan was married to Melanie Trivette in 2000, until his death in 2011. Perhaps two of the best known films he worked on are "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider".

                      

Waldemar Sjolander

Happy Birthday Waldemar Sjolander!

Although Waldemar Sjolander was actually born in Sweden, in 1908, his art career took off after immigrating to Mexico following World War II. He studied art in Sweden, traveling to Mexico several times and finally decided to settle in Mexico City, describing it 'as a kind of “tropical paradise” relatively unaffected by the vices of civilization and also free from the long winters of Sweden' . His work was in painting, sculpture and printmaking. He often made the tools he required for his art.Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco helped him get established in the Mexican art world. Later in his career his work became more abstracted, his color use bolder, as evidenced in the painting below. He lived to be 80 years old.

Alvaro Zardoni

Happy (late) Birthday Alvaro Zardoni!

Sometimes it is hard to find artists with birthdays on the exact day I am writing about...Zardoni was actually born on January 4, 1964, in Mexico City. He always knew he wanted to be an artist and studied drawing and painting in the Irene Lidroth workshop, but ultimately became a self taught sculptor. His work has been exhibited in over 100 shows and is typically human busts (always male) with icons and objects often added to emphasize the meaning or emotion desired to portray. The works are normally small, bronze, and always with an emotional or psychological aspect. His major influences are Louise Nevelson and Auguste Rodin.

Jose Chavez Morado

Happy Birthday Jose Chavez Morado!

Born in 1909, in Silao, Guanajuato, Jose Morado was instrumental in the muralist movement of the twentieth century. As a child his grandfather had a collection of over 5000 books which had been passed down through the family that provided Jose his first introduction to art and illustration. After immigrating to the US for a time, Morado returned to Mexico and began to practice his drawing, finally entering the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes to study art in earnest. Jose Morado was associated with a group to the political left, and joined the Mexican Communist Party. Perhaps his most prominent projects are his murals located at the Ciudad Universitaria. The one I have chosen to include here is La Conquista de la Energia, created in 1952. He was mourned at his death in 2002 as the last of the great Mexican muralists.