An Interview with Mr. BiZAR

Touchè Volume 2

NewSchool of Architecture and Design

By: Alexandra De Loen, Nicole Milla, Andrea Costelo, & Shames Alrobia

Who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?

Ok, my name is David Saavedra, but I am known as Mr. Bizar. I’m a muralist, an artist, and a lowrider painter, and I’m from here, from San Diego.

When did you start painting cars, and what did you do before that, like what led up to it?

I was a graffiti artist and a tagger. I got arrested and had to do some community service at a boys and girls club. While there, I met a group of counselors who were doing a play. Back then it was gangsters against taggers, and they were putting on a play about how that all went down. At the end of production, when we were ready to get the play out, they needed some banners/signs to promote it. They asked who could design some, and I ended up doing some of them. One of the guys said I was a good artist, good with the airbrush.

Later, we went to Missouri to teach a couple of kids there how to airbrush. While there, I was offered a car to paint, and that’s how the whole car painting thing got started.

How old were you?

I was 17.

And how long have you been doing it?

28 years. I started as an airbrush artist, not really painting cars but doing murals and designs, and eventually it built up into painting cars.

How did this mural opportunity arrive, and how did it make you feel?

It was cool, you know; just being part of Chicano Park, period, is cool. So, when they said they were looking for somebody who does lowriders because the mural is based on lowriders, of course I was interested. The car club that got offered the pillar to paint was one of the first car clubs to be recognized by Chicano Park. So, being that I am known for what I do, lowriders, they called me up. I came over here, and I just said, “Hey, if we are going to do it, let’s do it the right way, top to bottom.”

I bought a bunch of gold flake, and we got 30 pounds of flake on it now. It was cool just to know that they picked me; there are a lot of us, so many great artists in San Diego.

You mentioned 30 pounds of flake; what was the process?

This is the only building mural that I have ever done like this. I’ve done murals on cars. I’ve done some on schools back in the day, but more than anything I do lowrider painting; the custom kind of paint job is what I do the most. So, that’s what we did with that one; it’s based on the lowrider style. The same procedure that we do on an actual car, we did on that pillar, which is the only pillar that’s done like that here.

Did you know immediately that the mural would be gold?

No, not really. I came over here, and I was like, “Dude, that looks like a pyramid; let’s just get it GOLD.“ And when I told them that, they were shocked. “Are you serious? Like use flake on it?”

I told them, “Yeah, yeah, let’s go. What does it take us?” It takes a lot of work, but if you want to make it different than everything, let’s go? And of course they were like, “This guy is loco; what is he talking about?”

And I told them what we needed—this and that. It’s not just like the mural but the actual painting of the pillar so it can last. We sanded the pillar for like two weeks, and then we primed it and sanded it again. Because the pillar is not like metal, like a lowrider. It’s a concrete wall. So for the paint to adhere and grab well, there are a lot of procedures. For other murals, they often just clean it up, power wash it, and start rushing on it, and that’s it. But after five years, or ten years, they have to touch it up because the paint on the mural flakes and fades away.

But this one is hopefully going to last 40, 50 years without even touching it, without even doing anything. Sometimes you can go and buff up a mural, and it will shine more, but that’s a lot of work. But this mural won't need that. The letters on the top were the hardest ones, and those I did myself. Those were difficult because it was really windy up there, and while trying to paint, the paint was flying away. But I did it.

How long did it take overall from start to end?

Start to end I believe it was 11 months. But it took two years of planning and putting a model together and getting the approvals and all that stuff. And then putting up the scaffolding and all that. Altogether, from when the scaffolding went up, it took about a year to complete. But just to get permissions to start takes a while. Just to get the city to allow it. They got to approve the artwork and all of that.