October 29, 1998

Media Contact: José A. Alvarez (619) 594-2585

 

SDSU Professor and Local Artist Captures the Attention of San Diegans

 

On Sunday, November 1, during the 1:00 p.m. Grand Opening of the new City Heights Library (3795 Fairmount Avenue), visitors will be able to appreciate a 18-foot wall of slate tiles sandblasted with symbols representing the different ethnic groups in City Heights. Fireside Tales is yet another of the many works of San Diego State University art professor Jesus "Jess" Dominguez that can be admired all over the City of San Diego.

"I’m keeping busy," stated Dominguez, whose work can also be seen all over California and even New York, where his bronze statue of Fred Lebow, founder of the New York Marathon, stands at the finish line in Central Park.

Among Dominguez’s latest work is the Alonzo Horton statue in Horton Plaza, a larger-than-life bronze portrait of the founder of the main downtown area of the city of San Diego. At San Diego State University, a sculpture of SDSU’s first president, Samuel T. Black, stands in the heart of campus.

"I love three-dimensional sculptures because its a challenge to try to capture the essence of the person", added Dominguez, who is particularly proud of his sculpture of "Vinnie" Vinson, founder of the Holiday Bowl.

"When I was working on it, one of his daughters called me and the family got involved (in the project). When it was finished, she told me: ‘That’s dad’. It made me feel so good because she said it seemed as if her dad was coming back to life," Dominguez recalled. "Because of their input, I really got to know the man and I really got to like him." At Qualcomm Stadium, the Vinson statue stands along Dominguez’s twice-life-size bronze bust of the late Ray A. Kroc, former owner of the Padres.

Dominguez is also known locally for the life-size sculpture of Saint Didacus that stands in front of the University of San Diego’s Copley Library and "The Children’s Wall", a bronze and tile mural at Children’s Hospital in San Diego, which he did in collaboration with his wife Mary Lynn.

Dominguez, who knew he wanted to be an artist since "as far as I can remember," was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Trona, California, watching his father, a carpenter, do wood carvings.

"As a child, I was always drawing and building things with my hands. I used to get melon and lettuce boxes and carve things out of them," remembered Dominguez, who in high school got out of algebra and was placed in an art class because "art was the only thing I was good at."

The decision paid off. Dominguez went on to graduate with a Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture and Design from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and has been teaching art classes at San Diego State since 1976. In addition, his work has earned him recognition and received several awards, among them a meritorious award for his work in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Competition and a first prize for his sculpture entry in the All California ’84 competition.

However, he is not done. He is now working on a book on his childhood experiences on Mojave Street, the heart of the Mexican community in Trona.

"I made a lot of good friends there and met a lot of good people. Its going to be a book about priceless experiences."