An Artist Who Wants To Share The Beauty Of Graffiti With The World
(Alumni Highlight)
This week’s alumni is Juan Saaverda, also known as Tattoo Juan, Juan graduated from Hemet High in 2007. Juan currently spends his time working at Hidn Tattoo in San Jacinto as the shop manager. Juan loves to spend his free time with his kids and working on his classic truck. Juan is a great artist that has always loved drawing. At a young age, Juan Saaverda fell in love with graffiti type art and started practicing the style in all of his sketches. Eventually, Juan knew that he was going to draw for the rest of his life and started to learn how to draw different styles like realism, black and grey, and portraits. Juan prides himself on not only being a decent artist in one category, but rather being diverse enough to handle any kind of tattoo that comes walking through the door.
Juan Saaverda never lost his passion for the graffiti style of art, “It’s an art form that has passion and creativity.” Juan feels like a lot of people overlook graffiti artists because their art isn’t in a form that many people in society approve of. A lot of people don’t understand the difference between Tagging and Graffiti. Tagging is the ugly stuff you see around where people are trying to mark their territory, but Graffiti art with a message is some of the most beautiful art around.
Murals of people like Tupac and Nipsey Hussle in LA, the walls along Venice Beach, and Cesar Chavez Park in San Diego are all examples of the talent and beauty behind graffiti artists. Tattoo Juan plans on starting a nonprofit to help local kids who have a passion for graffiti. He hopes to help them channel that love for art into something positive. This nonprofit would have a piece of property where the kids can practice their graffiti freely without feeling like society is looking down on them. Juan would offer art classes to teach kids how to work with shadows, dimensions, and realistic details. For kids who have shown a commitment to the program and have grown, Juan Saaverda would like to teach them how to tattoo if that was a path they wanted to choose.
Juan believes that if we as a society stop criminalizing these kids who have a passion for art and instead embrace them, point them in the right direction, and teach them to channel their gifts into something they can use for the rest of their lives then we can make a real difference in the community.
Do you know someone who graduated from one of the local high schools and is doing great things in the community? Email me at [email protected] and tell me a little bit about them, make sure to include their contact information, a picture, and a detailed message of why they should be the next Alumni of the Week.
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