Riverside artist’s vivid murals fight blight, boost civic pride
Looking back on his years growing up in Colton and San Bernardino, Darren Villegas believes it was his dedication to art that kept him away from a gang lifestyle.
He had developed an interest in hip hop culture and spray-can art, within which he saw a culture where bravado and competitiveness were expressed through artistic ability and technical skill as opposed to violence.
“It served as a peaceful alternative to the gang violence, which was so prevalent in the Inland Empire during the 1990s,” he said. “By the age of 15 I had discovered the book ‘Subway Art’ by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper, and my brain exploded. My love for visual creativity hasn’t stopped since then.”
Villegas moved to Riverside in 1999, but headed to San Francisco where he majored in 3D animation and visual effects at the Academy of Art University. He began to understand how his art could leave a positive mark and become a tool to support social movement causes. Villegas created a series of large banners with his signature style font and color scheme.
“These were carried by marchers and became the trademark icons of San Francisco’s most powerful cultural and social movement campaigns between 2005 and 2012,” he said.
Villegas began partnering with several nonprofit organizations in 2005 to develop and teach mural art classes for teenagers at local community centers.
“My students and I would dialogue about relevant topics as a group, brainstorm images for a mural composition, then execute a community-involved mural,” he said. “Many of my students were at risk of becoming high school dropouts or turning to a life of crime.”
Under Villegas, the program provided the young people with a positive artistic experience that allowed them to be part of something and to express their emotions.
“I was able to steer them away from crime and violence into a positive direction from adolescence into their adulthood,” he said. After several years of the program’s success, Villegas was awarded a Certificate of Honor in the Arts from the San Francisco Mayor’s office and Board of Supervisors.
In addition to facilitating mural art workshops and lecturing for several institutions including Stanford University, San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco, in 2016 Villegas created “Cycles of Regeneration,” one of the largest single-artist murals in San Francisco’s Mission District area.
In 2017, Villegas returned to Riverside in hopes of using his experience to help develop the Inland region’s blossoming mural art movement. He painted a mural at Riverside City College and most recently contributed to the city of Riverside’s rapidly expanding collection of murals with “Two Lovers” at 14th and Market streets, “Universal Jazzman” at the Fox Theater and “The John Lewis Tribute Mural,” which was commissioned by the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California.
Villegas said all of the murals he painted in 2020, as well as his digital artwork and design, have a distinctly colorful and vibrant feel. His intent is to use this vibrancy to awaken the viewer’s inner creativity, breathing life and joy into both the viewer and the surrounding area.
“The arts, and specifically murals, are so important to communities in so many ways,” Villegas said. “Mural art combats urban blight, brightens up the surrounding areas and increases the spirit of civic pride within the residents of a city. And surprisingly, professional mural art installations actually deter vandalism. Many businesses who struggle with property defacement issues solve their problem by covering their blank wall with a permanent mural installation.”
Villegas is beginning a partnership with Women Wonder Writers to facilitate an art workshop series and mural project around the subject of environmental justice. He will soon be launching a new mural art business called MASS Murals.
