In celebration of Arizona’s centennial, a large-scale oil painting depicting the founding of Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson will hang permanently in the Downtown campus library upon the artwork’s completion.
“The painting has a bit of an ulterior motive in showing the good that different cultures coming together can make and also by highlighting Arizona’s Mexican past. It’s a veiled response to the recent surge of cultural and racial insensitivity in the state,” said Daniel Torrez, the artist of the painting.
Torrez, a junior English literature major, chose to paint this subject to address the ongoing issues of “racial insensitivity,” while addressing Mexican history in Arizona.
He began the painting in late 2010. The 8-foot by 10-foot painting will hang on the wall next to the stairwell, near the service desk.
A preliminary sketch shows Spanish and Native American figures placing a statue of San Xavier inside a niche in the mission. It is the final moment in the mission’s construction, Torrez said.
Torrez spends eight to nine hours every day painting and sometimes perches on a ladder to reach the top of the canvas. He took the semester off to complete the painting and teaches piano at night to pay the bills.
The estimated cost of the painting is $3,500. To help finance the work, Torrez started a Kickstarter account, a funding platform that allows people to raise money for creative projects. Kickstarter stipulates that money can only be dispersed if a project raises the requested amount by a deadline.
Torrez requested $2,100 and at the time of publication the fund had reached $1,950. The deadline for the project is March 2, but Torrez isn’t anxious.
Torrez sends out emails every night and said he receives one response for every 100 emails. The average donation is between $45 and $50, he said.
Torrez approached Scott Muir, director of the ASU library downtown, in late April 2011 with the offer to donate the painting. Torrez chose the library after seeing the available wall space.
Muir said he accepted almost immediately.
“It will leave a piece of the centennial for years to come,” Muir said.
The library intends to hang the painting as soon as it’s complete, although the budget to light the large oil painting is not currently available.
Muir said he is not sure when the funds will be available.
After confirming with Muir that ASU would accept the painting, Torrez submitted the work to the Arizona Historical Advisory Commission’s Legacy Project.
“It was a wager to do all of that leg-work for something that might not have been what the centennial commission was looking for, but I went for it because I felt strongly about making this particular gesture,” Torrez said.
The Legacy Project was started by the Arizona Centennial Committee in order to celebrate Arizona’s centennial.
Torrez submitted his painting after realizing it would be an opportunity to make a significant statement.
“You only get one centennial,” he said.
Torrez met all the criteria for the Legacy Project, but his application was rejected the first time as it lacked a sketch. Torrez submitted a second time and was accepted.
Julie Yoder, programs, projects and events subcommittee chair for AHAC, said they chose the painting because “it depicted a moment in Arizona history that many people might not know about.”
The Arizona Centennial Committee was created in 2007 and Yoder said it will disband at the end of March. The committee has chosen 170 projects and is still reviewing applications, Yoder said.
The committee offered Torrez $1,300 to complete the painting.
“It’s very creative. He put a lot of work into making sure it was historically accurate,” Yoder said.
To make the painting historically accurate, Torrez contacted Arizona historian Jim Turner. Turner lives in Tucson and the two met for three hours to discuss Mission San Xavier del Bac.
The mission was founded in 1692 by father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the mission started in the 1780s and completed by 1797. It is the oldest European building in Arizona, Turner said.
Turner advised him on how to portray the meeting of the two cultures and what a typical church service would have looked like at the time.
“It’s not dark light; it’s the southwest so it’s much more glaring, bright colors,” he said.
Despite tension between the two cultures, Turner said the meeting at the mission “was a friendly encounter.”
The painting should be finished by mid-March. Torrez will let the paint dry for two weeks before varnishing the entire canvas.
Contact the reporter at josselyn.berry@asu.edu
