Juan Alvarado (Joon the Goon)
Juan Alvarado, also known by his artist name “Joon the Goon,” grew up in Los Angeles. He graduated from the Art Center College of Design in 2007 and has since shown his artwork at the Museum of Latin American Art and La Luz de Jesus. In 2018, he showcased in and won a “battle” for Secret Walls, a competition in which two teams try to create the best mural in only 90 minutes. was chosen as a featured artist and created the mural “Parachutes” for POW! WOW! Long Beach.
Alvarado’s artistic style combines elements of his upbringing in Los Angeles, mixing the chaos of a busy urban environment with moments of loneliness in the crowd. His artwork is influenced by graffiti, Japanese woodblock art, animation, and comic books.
Written by Amelia Nixon
Source: http://artslb.org/artists/joonthegoon/
2018
Parachutes
Two blocks from Seaside Park, the mural “Parachutes” rises along the side of a factory building. Commissioned by POW! WOW! Long Beach for its 2018 summer festival, the mural stands at sixty feet high and its predominantly red, orange, and blue colors vibrantly contrast the industrial gray of the surrounding area. “Parachutes,” created by the artist self-named Joon the Goon (Juan [Joon] Alvarado), depicts a chaotic scene of five people parachuting amid orange and yellow smoke bubbles, while a blue monster tries to grab them with its tentacles.
Alvarado’s work is regarded as highly symbolic. Many of his murals include figures with an exposed midsection, or in “Parachutes” an open rib-cage, to represent how we all are slowly dying. This seems like a sad message, but the figures parachuting in the mural are smiling. Alvarado explains the story behind his mural saying,
“My mural has a lot of parachuters that are on the verge of dying. They are all about to fall to their deaths, some have holes in their parachutes and some don’t even have parachutes. But they are happy and living their lives. We are all dying, every day we are getting closer to our last days. So why not try and live it as best as we can.”
Deciding what Alvarado wanted to say was the starting point for “Parachutes.” He then sketched a picture of what he wanted the mural to look like, making changes until he was happy. After sketching his mural on the wall, Alvarado says he “slowly chipped at it” until he felt he was done. According to Alvarado, creating “Parachutes” for POW! WOW! Long Beach was his dream, and he encourages others to “chip” at their goals to make their dreams come true.
Written by Amelia Nixon
Sources: https://lbpost.com/life/arts-culture/your-complete-guide-to-pow-wow-long-beach-2018/, http://artslb.org/meet-the-pow-wow-long-beach-2018-mural-artists/
