Small-town artist making big-time impact

Armando Villarreal grew up in Imperial and always dreamed of being a professional artist. His high school art instructor in Imperial was Dik Haneline, who now teaches at North Platte Community College. “I was going to be a diesel mechanic,” Villarreal said. “I didn’t know anything about being an artist.” “One day, after I got after him to finish an assignment, he told me it didn’t matter because he was going to be a mechanic,” Haneline said. “All I said was, ‘Sure you are’.” After high school, Villarreal attended McCook Community College from 1995-96 and 2001-02 where he studied with Don Dernovich, who is now retired.

“Mr. Haneline introduced me to Don, who was the art instructor at McCook. Don was exactly what I was looking for in an art instructor. He was a realist, he was very skilled and he was a practicing artist and well known,” Villarreal said. “He was someone that could help me grow as an artist as well as learn the business of art. I visited Don at some of his shows and saw what it really took to be an artist.” After attending McCook Community College, Villarreal transferred to the University of NebraskaLincoln.

On the first day of classes in the second semester of his senior year in 2003, Villarreal’s Army Reserve unit was called to go to Iraq. “I got the call to deployment at three in the afternoon and was to report to North Platte at 7 a.m. the next morning,” he said. “We had to drive through a blizzard to get there.” Villarreal had also served in Kosovo in 2000.

After serving 365 days in Iraq, finishing college wasn’t high on Villarreal’s priority list. He found a job in Florida painting show motorcycles. After three months, the business closed. He packed up and moved to California, where he found another job painting motorcycles. His motorcycle art has won prestigious awards in Sturgis, S.D. and in Madera, Calif. “When the motorcycle shop in California closed, I found a want ad for artists on Craigslist,” he said. “There were between 400-500 artists who applied for the job.” Villarreal went to work for Victory Fine Art, a company devoted to sports art. After working there for a time, he decided to venture out on his own. “I work for myself, and I have a day job, so I have health insurance. I don’t get much sleep between the two jobs and having a family,” said Villarreal. However, he is still connected to his passion. “I am still very active in my art career,” Villarreal said. “Now that I am on my own, I can do motorcycles and anything else I choose. In the last year, I have painted a baseball bat for the Kansas City Royals as a gift for George Brett, a portrait for the White Sox to give to Hawk Harrelson as a retirement gift, several motorcycles and I just finished painting almost 200 special edition football helmets for Mississippi State University.” Villarreal works from photographs, and the finished product must look like the photograph, only better. “I love what I do,” he said. “Everyone has to be the best. You have to step up to paint.” Villarreal and his wife, Lora, and their sons, Jaxsen and Benji, now live in Imperial. Imperial was a great place for Armando to grow up, and now his children will have the opportunity to grow up there, too, and know their grandparents. “I’ve done the starving artist thing, where we lived on microwave popcorn,” Armando said. “My wife has always been very supportive of my work, and now things are finally beginning to pay off.” Spending time with students is still important

to him. He keeps in touch with his former instructors and often visits the campus to do art demonstrations.

“It’s good for them to see art created for real,” he said. “Mr. Haneline has remained a friend and mentor to me. I know he talks about me a lot and seeing me work gives creditability to what he is telling his students.” Villarreal is also appreciative of his time at MidPlains.

“I like that it was affordable, close to home and with smaller classes, it was easier to interact with the instructors”

“I like that it was affordable, close to home and with smaller classes, it was easier to interact with the instructors,” said Armando. Villarreal’s work can be viewed at: ArmandoVillarrealStudios.com and on Facebook. com/AVillarrealStudios. ” Much of this story was written by Diane Wetzel and was originally published in The North Platte Telegraph in 2013. The story was updated for this publication by Jo Ann Lundgreen. The photo was also taken by Diane Wetzel for The Telegraph and is published with permission.