Three-story mural celebrates Riverside’s cultural heritage
As a child, Darren Villegas couldn’t get enough of Looney Tunes cartoons and classic Disney animation.
That inspired him to pick up a pen and brush and start making art.
“As a pre-teen, I was very into comic books, rock ‘n’ roll album art and later became obsessed with books like ‘Subway Art’ and ‘Spraycan Art,’” the 43-year-old Riverside resident said.
Later, when he moved to San Francisco to attend the City College of San Francisco and Academy of Art University in San Francisco, he studied the great muralists of Mexico and was deeply moved by their work. The Chicano mural art movement of California from the ’60s and ’70s also helped Villegas find his calling.
Villegas taught mural art classes for teens for community organizations and painted several large-scale murals throughout San Francisco and Oakland before returning to Riverside in 2017.
Now — approximately 320 hours of labor and 350 cans of spray paint later — he has completed the “Riverside Resilience” mural on the back wall of The Box at the Fox Entertainment Plaza in downtown Riverside. It’s roughly 25 feet tall and 65 feet long and spans the height of the wall, from 30 feet off the ground up to what would be the fifth floor of the building. Villegas was the sole laborer on the piece, which is 100% spray paint.
“I’m very honored to share this vibrant work of art with the residents and visitors of Riverside,” he said. “The mural reads from left to right as an homage to our city’s cultural heritage, our residents’ resilience of spirit, our proud commitment to identify as a city of artistic expression and our perseverance towards innovation, for a brighter and stronger post-pandemic future.”
The mural project was spearheaded and coordinated by the Leadership Riverside Class of 2021. The class also found several financial sponsors for the project, including the city of Riverside, California Baptist University and UC Riverside, Villegas said.
Attend the official unveiling of Darren Villegas’ #RiversideResilience mural on Thursday, March 31 from 3-4pm, located on Fairmount Blvd. and Mission Inn Ave. in downtown Riverside.
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