Andrew Rodriguez Brings Feel Good Vibes to Ventura Streets

Jun 11

Jun 11 Andrew Rodriguez Brings Feel Good Vibes to Ventura Streets

By Brenda Tan

Anyone with a passing glance of downtown Ventura has probably seen the work of Andrew Rodriguez. From the Thank You, Frontline Heroes mural on Main Street to Ventura Avenue’s Stay Golden, Rodriguez’s murals imbue the streets with the city’s signature color and vibrancy.

Rodriguez’s murals are filled with vivid and chromatic shapes – bright colors and designs created in high-contrast patterns that pop. Geared towards easy to capture messages of joy, gratitude and inspiration, these are murals about making people feel good.

“It’s fascinating that distinct colors can make you feel different ways. I use the brightest colors possible because I want people to feel good when they see my art,” says Rodriguez, “I want my art to be fun and put light into the world.”

Andrew Rodriguez, Stay Golden. Photo by Peter Kappen. — Andrew Rodriguez, *Stay Golden*. Photo by Peter Kappen.

That child-like feeling you might have sensed in Rodriguez’s pared down figures is no accident. Rodriguez is drawing from the innocence of children’s drawings and storybooks, noting the magic of his young son’s illustrations: “the kind of drawing that pulls at your heartstrings.”

Rodriguez’s mural in downtown Ventura with an illustration of a heart in humanity’s hands is dedicated to the frontline workers of the pandemic and is also a personal piece for the artist whose brother works in the Covid unit at Flagstaff Hospital in Arizona.

Andrew Rodriguez, Thank You, Frontline Heroes, 2020. Photo by Debra Herrick. — Andrew Rodriguez, *Thank You, Frontline Heroes*, 2020. Photo by Debra Herrick.

Murals frighten a lot of people, artists especially. It takes a certain breed of person, someone who really wants to get out of their comfort zone, to tackle a mural. Though Rodriguez has been working as a professional artist for ten years, he only began painting murals a few years ago, but his confidence has grown, and now he’s hooked.

Bringing beauty and light to public spaces gives Rodriguez a sense of exhilaration and purpose – “It’s on par with big wave surfing,” he says, “There’s a thrill-seeking aspect to looking at a huge thousand square foot blank wall and putting your handprint on it and leaving something lasting for the community to see. There's no other adrenaline rush like that in the world.”