Editor’s Note: This is a new feature that will regularly appear in GoWild highlighting a particular artist’s achievements

Who: Artist and UA professor Alfred Quiroz

What:: Quiroz has paintings featured in several private collections and in the Tucson Museum of Art.

Bio:: Quiroz has worked in a number of professions including being a veteran of the military, a school administrator and an artist. His work has political messages and focuses on presidents and historical figures throughout history.

Wildcat: What inspires you?

Quiroz: I was inspired very early on in my life. I’ve always been artistically inclined. It was something I’ve always liked to do. I found that in grade school and in high school, the quicker I did my homework, the more time I had to do my art. Creativity is in there in all of us. I felt it was important at some point, that they get a good art education.

W: What art inspires you?

Q: Probably my mentor early on in my career was Peter Saul. I met him my first year in art school and he took me under his wing. At the time he was doing a series on lynching. He asked me what were things that I thought about. I said, “”Some of the things aren’t very pretty,”” and he said, “”Well those are the things you should be painting.””

W: What artistic mediums do you work in?

Q: Primarily in acrylic and oils. They’re separate; I don’t work in them together.

W: What makes you a unique artist/gives you a unique voice?

Q: I think my personal experience in the military and my personal experience being an ex-administrator. I went from the gamut of a teacher to an adjunct lecturer, to an arts coordinator. Being a creative person is a tough life. I like working with students and like to see them succeed.

W: What is your most recent work?

Q: Probably a painting of Warren Harding and a piece called “”Back to Normalcy.”” I’m picking presidents that I feel have some relationship to what is going on now currently.

W: When did you start making art?

Q: 1968. My first year of art school. I have to tell you, I got into art school without a portfolio. I was in the Navy, and every month I would send them a letter. I narrowed the field down to one school and it was the San Francisco art school. I wanted to be able to paint at my own leisure. I was not a client-directed individual.

W: What piece that you’ve done are you most proud of?

Q: There’s quite a few pieces that I’m proud of what I’ve done. I think one of the big pieces that got a lot of publicity was “”Novus Ordo.”” That was probably my biggest piece to date. Twelve feet by 24 feet. A commission. It was probably the first time I asked the students to work with me. It’s been exhibited twice in Tucson but it’s never been exhibited correctly. You’ve got a piece that’s 12 foot high, you can’t put it in a 10-foot gallery. You need to see it from a distance and then approach it.

W: Do you collaborate with other artists?

Q: I’m doing a collaboration right now in Nogales, Sonora. We did a collaborative project on the border. These are basically aluminum pieces. I built 16 giant milagros out of aluminum. And they painted some aluminum pieces and placed them on the border wall on the Mexican side. The message is about what’s going on in the border, the border deaths, the fact that people are being hired to work in the United States from Mexico. It’s kind of a double standard.

W: What do you think of Tucson?

Q: I love it. I was born and raised here. I’m a homeboy. I’ve always felt that Tucson was gonna be an art Mecca because of its physical position. You’ve got five ranges of mountains all around you. To me it’s just an exciting place for an artist visually.

W: What’s next for you?

Q: Three museum shows. The Joe Diaz collection will be opening in the San Jose Museum of Art and I was just in Chicago for the Mexican Museum of Fine Arts. I’ve been invited to come to Denver and I gave them an older piece. I’ll be in Denver for, like, four days. I’ve always wanted to travel, zip around for four days, do an impact and then leave.