Rod Guevara — Improvisations in Color

Submitted by Sue (Sugia) Anderson, ‘67

Rod Guevara self portrait

Rod is probably best remembered by his FHS ’67 classmates for his sense of humor and shooting the basketball. Following his fragmented time at UW, finally getting degrees in English (Writing) and Sociology, he settled in near North Seattle. He spent many years coaching kids, starting with his own, and adults in basketball and baseball. In fact, he has been an assistant coach/video coordinator/advance scout with Franklin boys’ basketball for more than ten years. Some of us had him pegged as an athlete. It came as some surprise then, when Rod produced his latest paintings at our 2018 class reunion picnic. They were bold experiments in color, labeled with curious names like Sunrise on Enceladus or Then There Was a Moth.

Rod’s journey into visual-art began with non-visual arts -- music in the late 60s when he discovered delta blues and free-form jazz. He bought a guitar and started to play with sounds. Innovation and exploration became a means of expressing the new ideas he was encountering in that tumultuous era. 

ROD GUEVARA - Rose Pebble Highway

In 2017, when Rod retired from Seattle City Light after leaving the Seattle School District, he decided to paint. He had no formal instruction. He expressed regret he had never taken a class with Mr. Fujii at Franklin. He had taken one random art class at the UW and doodled in the margins of agendas during his middle school staff meetings. 

Being somewhat solitary, Rod approached his decision to make art in an unusual manner. He did not sign up for a beginners’ watercolor class at his local community center. He did not go to an art store and purchase expensive materials from some expert’s list. Rod went to Goodwill and other thrift stores, and bought up used canvases, discarded acrylic paints, inks, kids’ craft paint, and bingo blotters. Starting with used canvases, he covered, layered, subtracted, added, dribbled, stamped, and flung paint. He even cut up some of his paintings and wove new ones.

ROD GUEVARA - Clouded Mountain (002)

Seven years later, Rod has refined his work trusting his intuition and building on his experiments in color, texture, and value. He creates abstract, nonrepresentational, and distorted landscape paintings, and produces two-three paintings a week, displaying his work at the A/NT Gallery co-op on the Seattle Center grounds across from the fountain. Rod has sold paintings, but that seems to be less of a reward than living in the creative process every day.  

When asked about what he most values about his high school years, Rod fondly remembers a couple of people who were close to him, but mostly treasures interacting with the wide variety of people in the student body. He also discovered “playing in the zone” on the basketball court, understanding the “flow” aspect of sport. Rod searches for the same optimal zone/flow when he is painting or playing guitar. 

Rod approached learning a new art form with passion and dedication. Now he has a body of work hanging in a gallery to illustrate his success. His experience encourages all of us to try new things, to keep at it, and see where the story goes. Bravo, Rod.