The art world has a few illustrious Lopezes: muralist Carlos Lopez, Antonio Lopez Garcia (featured in this issue), Smithsonian Institution-featured folk artist George Lopez, and then there’s OUR George Lopez – “America’s Mexican,” as he calls himself.  George Lopez, the master of comedy, television, film, recordings, golf and Chicano art.

A Los Angeles native, George grew up poor in the San Fernando Valley. It was not a happy existence, but gave young George fuel for his comedic fire.  He knew, from an early age, that two things were very clear; he had a gift for making people laugh, and he was different from everyone else in his family.  Life was hard, but the jokes came easy.  Even his stern grandmother, the person who raised him after his mother left town, would laugh at him on occasion.

Stardom did not come as easily, but it did come in time.  Hard at work since the early 1980’s, Lopez became part of the country’s lexicon with the hit television show George Lopez, which ran on ABC from 2002 until 2007.  Until that breakthrough run, he had been successful as a radio show host and stand-up comedian. But the prime-time network show catapulted him to a new level of recognition and fame.  Still, even during those magical five years, George grabbed at as many other brass rings as he could, peppering life with hit recordings and a Grammy nomination, movie roles and strings of sold-out shows for his stand-up comedy routines.  His book, Why You Cryin?, went to the top 20 on the New York Times’ best-sellers list.  He became a beloved fixture at the AT&T National Pro-Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach, and the host of the Bob Hope Invitational Golf Tournament in the Palm Springs area.

In 2005, Lopez gave in to some long-lingering warning signs, and received confirmation that, due to a genetic disorder, his kidneys had deteriorated – badly.  It was a choice between a transplant or slowly but surely watching his life end.  Shortly thereafter, he received a transplant of a kidney donated by his wife, Ann. Now, health wise, they have never felt better.

The renewed health and the end of the long-running television show is giving Lopez a chance to enjoy some of the finer things in life: family, the game of golf, working with non-profit groups, and art collecting.  Although slowing down is out of the question, George is actually getting to enjoy the fruits of 25 years “in the business.” When we spoke, he was just an hour away from leaving for a four-week European vacation – a holiday with no work, all play. He’ll spend one of those weeks touring with his favorite rock band of all time, KISS.  Ann says it’s “a teenage fantasy come true.”

George is funny most of the time, but gets very serious about a couple things in life: his background and art.

Dina Eastwood:  With you funny guys, there always seems to be some kind of darker force that originally drove you.  What was yours?

GEORGE_LOPEZ: Growing up, I saw a lot of abuse.  Abuse of people, of alcohol.  I never belonged in my family.  I didn’t fit in. I was kind.  I had different thoughts than they did.  I was never a taker. They were all takers. I wanted to give back, and I have given back. I wanted to distance myself from everyone I grew up with, and I did. My family (wife and 12-year-old daughter Mayan), my friends and my fans are my family.

Dina:  Was a sad little guy still able to find humor?  Were you funny?

GEORGE: Yeah, I guess I was.  It’s funny.  You can’t put a finger on it. The humor, it’s always there.  I never question it.  And I never ask anything of it.  I never grind at it.  I always feel it’ll happen in its time.

Dina: So what changed for you when you suddenly knew that “funny” could improve your life?

GEORGE:  It changed it in so many ways. With the art, when I used to look at it, I’d think about my past, and I was a bit ashamed of where I came from.  Now, I know I should not be ashamed. I live and do so many more things.  I wrote the book and I support the arts.  It’s funny because I have never taken a vacation this long and have never stayed in nice places.  It’s all part of the grabbing onto life.

Dina:  That’s right!  When was the first time you remember caring about art?

GEORGE:  In high school there was a play called Zoot Suit.  There was an oil painting of its star, (actor) Edward James Olmos, and I liked that.  That was the first time I remember noticing. Ann has always been a fan of art, and a collector.  One of her favorite painters is Carlos Almaraz. Several years ago, when Ann’s father passed, she got a little bit of money in an inheritance, and she bought a lithograph or print of one of Almaraz’s paintings. It hung in our condo for years.  I bought her the original, in oil, about three years ago.

Dina:  Was that one of those “I’ve made it” moments?

GEORGE: Yeah, definitely.
Dina:  About three years ago, you generously gave us an amazing abstract cowboy by Frank Romero.  What happened in your life to keep the interest in art expanding?

GEORGE: Well, we met (actor) Cheech (Marin).  We spent the night at Cheech’s house ten years ago, and his house, at that time, contained all the works that make up the exhibit of Chicano art that he now has on the road. It’s an exhibit that has made it to the Smithsonian Institution, and now will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Staying with Cheech was like staying at the Mexican Louvre.  You see a Chicano art book featuring the painting Little Girl With Yellow Dress by Patssi Valdez (1995).  Well, you look in Cheech’s hallway – and there it is.  Or the artwork La Pistola y El Corozon, which is on the cover of a Los Lobos CD.  You look in the house, and there it is!  Next, I stumbled upon Frank Romero.  I always liked Frank’s stuff. I always wanted a ‘54 Chevy Bel Air, and Ann got him to paint one for me for my birthday. He does a lot of cars in his works.  When I sold out six straight shows at Nokia Center last year, the guys at AEG, the promotion company, they got me an Almaraz of police chasing a car and the people in the car shooting back. The bullets are all done in deep oil paint.  It’s so cool.  Almaraz died in the late 1980’s.

A dear friend of ours, Lisa Coscino, owns the Lisa Coscino Gallery in Pacific Grove and she is really into Chicano art, a huge supporter.  She turned us on to Jorge Lozano’s art.  We go there and buy a lot.  They keep their ear to the ground.  She found an Almaraz on eBay, and we checked it out.  It was being sold for $8,500, so we got it. We think it was his last painting. Check this out – on the back of the painting it says, “To Barry and George, NFS” which means “not for sale,” then all that is crossed out and re-titled Death Rides By.  The back is more interesting than the front, man!   I had gotten away from art for many years, but then the chain started from Ann, to Cheech to Lisa.  Now, I consider myself a collector.

Dina:  Were you able to bring any of that collector’s knowledge to your work?

GEORGE: When we started to do the George Lopez Show, we wanted the Lopez house to be traditional American, not Spanish style or anything. But, we wanted the art in the house to be Chicano. So, the house itself looks like the lobby of the Hilton in Apsen, Colorado, but the art is all Chicano.

Dina:  You and Ann do a lot of non-profit work and in the past it had a lot to do with funding art in education.  Has your health scare shifted your focus?

GEORGE: We are the spokespeople for the National Kidney Foundation. I am a great example and a bad example of health.  I did not go to the doctor when I was sick. I had all the signs and was not aware of them.  Now that I am healthy, I am diligent and meticulous in checking everything: blood pressure, cholesterol, creatine levels.  My message is to everyone – get checked out!  Make it happen.

Dina: You can’t buy happiness or health.  But money must bring some kind of confidence for you?

GEORGE: Not having money, I was really very uncomfortable, like in a way you could never relax.  I didn’t take advantage of living. I was always worried about being poor.  The worst thing I did, for my mind, was finding my grandfather’s bankbook at the age of 14 and it had nothing in it.  Nothing.  I lived never being able to be comfortable.  Living was week-to-week, hand to mouth, and it added a bit of stress.  I wouldn’t ever even go window-shopping.   If I couldn’t buy it, I didn’t want it.  The value of that was it made me want to work harder to become secure – to see something good come in instead of idly wasting my time. I didn’t know it was going to be this, but I knew that I didn’t want it to be that.

Being poor was no fun at all. I didn’t want to go to the window and have to give back a cheeseburger because we didn’t have all the money to pay for it – go to a picnic and our whole group takes a bite out of a burger and passes around one coke. Someone would say, “Hey wanna go to the park and hear a band?”  Well, it was never “yes or no” to go to a concert in the park or the carnival.  It was “how much is it?”  How about the one where you hold a torn ticket in your hand so when you present it, it looks like you have a non-torn ticket?

Dina:  Well, I am afraid that our children will be doing the “torn ticket reuse gag” for fun.  Don’t you?

GEORGE:  You might as well be talking to your kids about the Incas when you talk to your kids about how things were 20 years ago.  I told my daughter, “Just 20 years ago, I put three dollars of gas in my car. And she says back to me. ‘Why, dad?  You were in a hurry?’
NO, it’s all I had!”
I’d like to have an archaeological dig sometime in my backyard.  You know, take them in the backyard and start digging with a chisel and toothbrush.  We’d try to unearth a game of jacks, or maybe a tennis ball that we had wrapped with duct tape in order to make it last longer. We could really shock our kids.  “Look what we had to play with? Daddy had to throw the tennis ball against the wall, alone, because he couldn’t have friends over.” I’m afraid kids these days can’t even put their DVDs back in the case.

Dina:  What’s left for you to master?

GEORGE:  Even though I have been nominated, my goal is to win a Grammy. I think of all the times I wrote jokes on the cover of the phone book or wrote jokes on a napkin. The journey of coming from that to the Grammy is one that I have to make.

Dina:  I better let you off the phone now or there is a European journey you will NOT be making!  And Ann will kill me.

GEORGE:  Well, talk later then, and give that Clint a big kiss on the lips from me.

Dina:  Will do!

After his “Europe 2008″ summer tour, George Lopez will focus on his next Live HBO special, which will air in 2009.  He has three movies being released soon: Swing Vote with Kevin Costner will be in theaters August 1, Henry Poole with Luke Wilson comes out August 15, and George will be the voice of a dog named Papi in Beverly Hills Chihuahua with Andy Garcia and Drew Barrymore, which will be out on September 26.  And, look for him in comedy clubs all through the year, including in San Francisco at the Warfield Theater on September 13 and 14.

ARTWORKS Magazine – Summer 2008