A Boyle Heights artist whose murals decorate Los Angeles and the world was honored on Thursday.
Mendez High School honored Robert Vargas by renaming its library the Robert Vargas Library and Media Center. On the exterior wall of the library is a mural done by Vargas titled “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”
“I'm feeling really excited, very humbled to be receiving this incredible honor, not only for me but also as a hometown kid from this area, and hopefully this mural and this library inspires the next generation of creatives to pursue a career in the arts,’ Vargas said.
During the ceremony at the school, actor and community activist Edward James Olmos celebrated Vargas’ artistic legacy and cultural impact.
“Robert, to me, is the essence of what we can do the best at, and that is to really give to others,” Olmos said. “The empathy, the understanding of our culture, is overwhelming, and yet we get no credit for it, and what he does is he gives us the opportunity to understand ourselves the fullest and to understand that it does work and we have to continue to do it, especially right now during this period of time.”
Vargas’ local murals include “Samurai of the Diamond" in South Bay, “L.A. Rising” in Little Tokyo, "From the Ashes” in Altadena, and “Fernandomania Forever” in Boyle Heights.
He’s on track to break a world record. Vargas is almost done painting a 60,000+ square-foot mural at Pershing Square, which would be the largest one in the world by a single artist.
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