Window Painter's Good Cheer

If you are spending some time of holiday season eating enchiladas verdes at Taco Taco Café, you could see a guy who walks up to the glass front door and instead of coming in, he pulls out a brush and paints “Merry Christmas” on it in calligraphy so perfect it looks computer-generated. You turn away to butter a tortilla and in the time that takes, the door acquires two red poinsettias with a third one on the way. Darker hues add dimension, all in a brushstroke. You fork in more enchilada, take a sip of tea, and the scene is now flecked with snowflakes, appearing faster than nature can drop them.

Who is this guy? What's his story? His name is Jesse Zapata, and he's been making art since he was a child. “It comes natural,” he said. “I've always done it.” After studying commercial art at Fox Tech High School 30 years ago, he was a pressman at the Express-News. His watercolors and oils sell at restaurants whose doors and windows he paints, such as Panchito's and The Blanco Cafe. The doors and windows? “I do 20 a day,” he told.

As he walked off across the parking lot to his next job, he turned and called, “Merry Christmas!” And it felt like it.

Artist Jesse Zapata poses with part of the door and window decorations he dashed off at Taco Taco Cafe

Source: MySA