How Carlos Barboza is changing the face of the state’s art community, one mural at a time.
Carlos Barboza found a more fulfilling place to pursue art that is appreciated when he boomeranged back to Oklahoma from Los Angeles. At age ten, his family emigrated from Costa Rica and after growing up here, he set off to California to pursue filmmaking. After some time, he realized the impact his art could have on the community here while raising a family. In this episode of Oklahoma Stories, Carlos talks about how he can explore his artistic endeavors while living the American dream.
My name is Carlos Barboza and I am an artist living in Oklahoma City.
It’s always good to have a way to create and to feel a little bit more connected to the world. The fact that it makes you lose track of time. I’ve been wanting to be an artist for as long as I can remember. I come from a long line of artists in my family. One day, a friend of mine asked me to paint a mural on her building in Yukon. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time, but it all started to make a little bit of sense to me that this is kind of what I always wanted to do.
Then, somebody else wanted one. Then, somebody else wanted one, and now it’s been six years of doing this professionally and one day I decided, I guess I’m a muralist now.
Finding Artistic Opportunity
I was born in Costa Rica and I migrated to the United States when I was ten. We moved here and I grew up in Oklahoma. I went out to California to pursue filmmaking and started working on movie sets and I mostly did the art department and set dressing. I remember I reached a point in Los Angeles thinking, “I could just be doing this in Oklahoma.” There’s a stark contrast between creating a large mural in LA where nobody really looks at it, because everybody there is already so oversaturated with content, art, and colors that they don’t even take a minute to appreciate it.
Discovering Communities
Then you go to a small town or you go to a place in Oklahoma where it is like the first time somebody is seeing art created on such a large scale. It’s exciting and leaves an impression, and as an artist, that’s what you want.
There are these really amazing pockets across Oklahoma City. We do have places like the Plaza District and Paseo that are trying to push things forward and create a more exciting environment here.
The Plaza is kind of a fun, eclectic place. They have this little corner of the world where we can do whatever we want in a sense. We can explore and be weird if we want to, where people can feel safe to express themselves and be whoever they want to be. It’s become a really cool thing to see grow.
Raising a Family
I have a wife and a child. My daughter’s name is Maxine. We have so many different places we can go. We can be in the Plaza and she can learn about art, expression, and other people’s point of view she otherwise wouldn’t get to hear from. But also, we get to be in Yukon and we get to kind of have that all-American, salt of the Earth experience where everyone walks the neighborhood and is safe and comfortable.
I’m enjoying much more now the pace that I’m living my life in, which is a little bit slower and calmer, where I think about what I’m going to do next and at the same time, I can go home and spend time with my family.
