Raul Espinoza grew up dreaming of flying. Now he gives wings to others with his soaring art.
Born in Texas to migrant parents, Espinoza grew up traveling up and down the Lone Star State and California. His father worked the fields and the crop seasons determined where his family moved. Fate brought them to a migrant camp California’s Central Valley where Espinoza’s artistic journey was to unfold. Picking crops and doing manual labor proved to be great preparation for a college instructor.
“My dad, my mom and us just went to destination who-knows-where and my sister tells me that dad asked mom how much money we have and she said none,” Espinoza said. “So with the little bit of gas money we had left dad kept driving around. We wound up in Bakersfield.”
Espinoza, his four brothers and four sisters grew up in California migrant camps.
“My dad and my mom were too poor to afford toys for me,” he recalled. “(But) I remember seeing model airplanes.”
Window shopping sparked a passion for the flying machines, Espinoza said. He drew them constantly and fully developed his artistic talents.
“The love, the interest to want to have my own airplane led me to want to do well in school,” said Espinoza. “Knowing how to put an airplane together you have to know how to read directions and you have to know how to measure things, so it began to instill in me desire to know knowledge.”
Espinoza moved on to draw other subjects and soon realized he was an artist.
“For many, many years I drew airplanes,” he said. “I drew them and what was happening was that I wasn’t necessarily getting closer to flying an airplane or owning one, but I was getting closer to being a better artist.”
From Chaffey College to SDSU, Espinoza studied art with the airplane as his muse. He began teaching while working on his MFA at UCSD. In pursuing his graduate degree, he looked to his own life for inspiration. He teaches budding artists to spread their wings and fly even if at first they fall. He now teaches Airbrush and Art History at Southwestern College.
“Raul doesn’t fake the funk,” said art student Kalin McGinty. “If your work is not good he’s going tell you how to make it better. He had a lot of patience with me. Try and try again.”
Espinoza’s mastery of the airbrush qualifies him as an art instructor, but his patience and ability to encourage students makes him a teacher. The atmosphere in his classroom is relaxed but focused. There are several returning students in the class that lends a friendly vibe to the air. Martin Peña has taken the class four times and is now auditing. He said he is an Espinoza fan.
“He’s a good teacher,” Peña said. “He teaches you a lot of techniques and helps you out a lot with what you want to base your artwork on. He helps you out with making your own effects, step by step. I’ve seen a lot of people come back and that made me want to continue taking the class.”
Espinoza glides from easel to easel coaching each student. He reviews works in progress and demonstrates techniques needed to create a particular effect. He makes time for each painter, urging them to look within to find that which is worthy of becoming art.
“Find out where the passions are and pursue anything and everything to make it happen. Persevere,” said Espinoza. “The years have a way of teaching us things. Situations are difficult. It’s how you work your way around it that matters.”