Jesse Trevino - The Artist. The Man.

Описание: This is the amazing story of legendary artist Jesse Trevino, who lost his painting hand in combat in Vietnam, but persevered to become San Antonio's best-known artist, with works in the Smithsonian and landmark tile murals, the tallest nine stories tall.

He was a child prodigy in art, born into poverty in Mexico, one of 12 children, who was raised on San Antonio's poor West Side.
But he earned a scholarship to a prestigious New York art school and was soon making as much as $200 a night drawing portraits of tourists in Greenwich Village.

That spring he was drafted and wound up in combat in Vietnam, where lost his painting hand and his leg was shattered.
Then while he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center, a double amputee pushed Jesse to start painting again with his left hand.
He did. And he eventually became San Antonio's most popular artist, earning national acclaim.
Of his landmark tile murals, the biggest is the nine-story tall 'Spirit of Healing' on the side of Christus Children's Hospital facing Milam Park.

Jesse was also a complicated, sometimes difficult man to deal with, only late in life realizing he had suffered from PTSD ever since he was nearly killed in Vietnam.

I knew Jesse for some 40 years, interviewing him extensively a number of times over the decades, but I only came to know him well in the years before his death in 2023.

This is an early version of the documentary I put together for KLRN-TV.
Jesse Trevino - 1946 - 2023. R.I.P. my friend.