Photo by Manuel Mata-Flores’19 | Ceaser Lopez ’18 paints a profile on a singer which he admires on Monday Oct. 9, 2017 in Eller 218.

By Matthew Zacher ’18

THE ROUNDUP

Cesar Lopez ’18 has been involved in Brophy’s art program for three years, and Ms. Deb Cronin said that not only is he one of her best students, but is also incredibly generous and passionate.

“I think he is an outstanding painter,” she said. “He chooses very interesting subjects, he’s good at composition and he frames them well.”

Ms. Cronin said that Lopez is very committed to his work, and spends lots of time at lunch and at home perfecting his art.

“The thing that is amazing about Cesar is that if he wants to do something, he is so tenacious until it is finished,” she said. “During the summer he did several paintings and he even had an art show where he displayed his art.”

Lopez said that he just started painting classes at Brophy last year, but he added that he has always been a creative person.

“I just picked up painting last year and it clicked,” he said. “It’s a cool hobby. I think it is a very therapeutic thing, but it is also very time consuming.”

Lopez does mostly portraits, and Ms. Cronin said that he can paint almost anyone.

“He is the master of skin tone, and I don’t just mean one person’s skin tone,” she said. “Everyone from Amy Winehouse to Kendrick Lamar, he can nail it with the colors, and it is smooth. He can really mix paint and observe the lights and darks in paints.”

Ms. Cronin also said that Lopez is remarkably kind-hearted.

“He is really generous,” she said. “If you ask him to do something, he always says yes. I wanted him to do Amy Winehouse out in the hall and I think he did Biggie too. I said, ‘I need more paintings out there,’ and he had them done.”

Cronin said that Lopez’s love for people comes through in his portraits, and Lopez said that, while he has never thought about it, he agrees.

“I intentionally paint people who I feel aren’t painted all the time,” he said. “I specifically paint Black and Latino people that I know. Even within the art industry, there are people that are misrepresented.”

Lopez is also very involved in the Brophy Culture Project and Hermanos Unidos. Lopez said that he has a passion for activism, and that he participated in the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter march this year.

Lopez is also the president of Best Buddies, so he spends time playing and mentoring students at Desert Heights Academy with developmental disabilities.

“I have two family members with disabilities,” he said. “I had no idea I would have such a passion for helping these kids until I started with Best Buddies freshman year.”

Ms. Cronin said that Lopez has helped get these students involved in the artistic process.

“They seem to really like to paint, and he has discovered that it would best suit them to paint in watercolor, so he has taught them some watercolor pencil techniques,” she said. “I think that is really wonderful what he is doing.”

Enrique Ortega was involved in Best Buddies with Lopez last year, and he said that the kids were always excited to see Cesar.

“He is always looking to help others,” Ortega said. “With Best Buddies, he is always looking to put the kids in front of himself.”

Ortega also said that Lopez is a great artist.

“I know he has done one of Amy Winehouse that was very well detailed,” he said. “I believe the inspiration for the painting was one of her albums, and, if that album were a painting, what Cesar did is exactly what it would look like.”