Portraits of My Neighbors Painting Bico and Chato

The annual exhibition of my recent work continues at my studio, Cuauhtemoc 635, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.

Bico and Chato are neighbours just down the street and I have known Bico since the beginning of the construction of my studio. He is an ironworker and fearlessly worked to install my metal roof up high . this was the least expensive roofing possible, I had run out of money building and needed to get a roof on before the rains came. Clay tiles are too dirty for what is underneath, my studio and paintings. That was years ago and the roof still stands clean and impervious to the elements and Bico remains my neighbour.

I ran into him in December and he asked if I needed work, his herreria had closed for the festivities for the month of December and he saw that there was ironwork that needed painting at my Casa Brava. I needed a model, not an ironworker and so we arranged for him to model for me, he would have work and I would have a model for my work. He came the following week in a nice dark blue shirt with pink and orange dragons and he brought me the horns of a bull to paint. I was touched, it was the first time I had received horns of a bull for a gift. And down the street we went to paint, he sat on a white ironwork bench under a big tree along the Rio Cuale and there, surrounded by his gang, pandilla, we began the work. They were entertaining and distracting in their macho way but I kept my focus, that is until the dog, Chato, appeared. I don't know if the dog was Bico's dog or if he belonged to one of the pandilla but he wore a lei of limes around his neck and I was charmed to see this. This is a well known treatment for a dog with a cough, this is the great part about being a stranger in a strange land. Normal to the gang but to me, magical. and so the next day and the last sitting I brought over a small canvas and painted Chato with a lei of limes and he sat proudly and somewhat shyly and these were the last paintings I did in 2007, "Bico" and " Chato Tiene Tos " Chato Has a Cough ".