Tuesday, March 21, 2000

Artist to use gold and blue tiles for mural at Moody High School

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

This drawing shows a mural that local artist Joel Garcia will begin working on next week at Moody High School.

Ever since he re-created the icon "Mother of Perpetual Help" in a mosaic six years ago at Corpus Christi's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, offers of work have been pouring in for local artist Joel Garcia.
   Next week, Garcia begins work on his latest project, this time at Moody High School, where he has been commissioned to create in tiles a scene depicting a Trojan warrior in a chariot pulled by two white horses. The 15-foot-by-17-foot mosaic of the school mascot is a project spearheaded by Moody's Student Council and its sponsor, Spanish teacher Raymond Muniz. It will grace the school's brick facade.
   Garcia's mosaics also adorn Carroll High School, St. Thomas More Catholic Church, St. Andrew By the Sea and Robstown's St. John Napomucene Church. In recent years, the 69-year-old self-taught artist has even received numerous out-of-state queries, including from churches and universities, to carry out his artistic vision elsewhere. Garcia has turned them down.
   Missionary work in Mexico
   "Those out-of-state projects require a lot of time that I'd rather be spending doing my missionary work," said Garcia, a retired sign manufacturer. With his wife, Garcia spends as many as four months out of the year, sometimes even longer, doing missionary work in Coahuila, Mexico. The two have been involved in missionary work in northern Coahuila since 1985.
   It is that missionary work, in part, that drives Garcia to take on local mosaic projects. Not only does the work provide some amount of personal satisfaction; it enables Garcia to donate his earnings to his missionary work.
   Some tiles from Canada

To make a donation Moody's Student Council has contributed $2,000 for the mosaic and needs $4,000 more. To donate to the mosaic fund, call Moody High School at 854-3261 after March 26.

   For the Moody mosaic, Garcia intends to use blue tiles from Canada and gold tiles from Mexico, countries that produce the most exquisite and vivid color variations of these materials. The average size of the glossy tiles is no more than one-half square inch, many then hand cut into the tiniest of slivers to fill in gaps, Garcia said.
   After completing the Moody mosaic in a couple of months, Garcia and his wife plan to return to Mexico to continue their missionary work. When he is back in Corpus Christi, the artist often sits at the parking lot of Carroll High School or any of the churches, not to admire his work, but critique it.
   "I'm a perfectionist," Garcia said. "I'll sit there and stare at it with a critical eye. I hope that every time I do work it will be better than the last one."
  
  
 

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