Neto's Tucson: An artist without a home

He hurt his back while working in maintenance and hasn’t had a steady job since. He was roughed up once and another time stabbed in the hand. He lives on his monthly Social Security check.

And he doesn’t have a place to live. But Norzagaray, who shuttles between Tucson and Los Angeles, doesn’t consider himself homeless.

His identity, his life, is painting.

“If there’s no struggle, there’s no reward,” said the 62-year-old artist, who was born in Nogales, Sonora.

His reward is to paint and paint and paint. His artwork is inspired by his Mexican heritage, coupled with his life experiences living north of the border.

“Whatever goes through your mind, try it,” he recently advised two women who visited the small adobe display room at the Little Gallery at DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, on North Swan Road in the foothills. “There’s nothing you can’t paint.”

Norzagary paints away: old, wise, wrinkled women; hummingbirds; cactus; la Virgen de Guadalupe; men carrying firewood; women carrying earthen water jugs; La Llorona (the weeping woman); flowers; Mexican Revolutionary silhouettes. His canvas includes napkins and smooth rocks. He has lithographs and T-shirts.

Though he’s a full-fledged commercial artist, making a living through artwork is tough — as other artists can attest.

“I never painted to be rich. I just painted to be creative,” he said, alternating between speaking in Spanish and English.

When he was about 7, his parents moved the family to Los Angeles, a mecca for many Mexican families. Post-World War II L.A. was booming. There were jobs and dreams.

“What I heard was that it was for a better life,” said Norzagaray, the eldest of eight children.

But that better life didn’t come to the family who moved to East L.A., the hub for Mexican and Chicano families. His parents struggled. There wasn’t much money in the home.

As a kid he liked to doodle and draw. His nascent passion got him into trouble at school when teachers complained to his parents. But he insisted on drawing and sketching.

Though he graduated from Garfield High School and took classes at East L.A. Community College, Norzagaray is a self-taught artist. He also taught himself the art of self-promotion.

“Welcome,” he greeted another pair of visitors Friday morning to the gallery, where he’ll continue exhibiting through the end of this week. They scanned the mud walls adorned with his work.

“I was born in a house like this, in Nogales,” he said, as he gave the prospective customers a quick tour of his work.

His patter was almost identical for other visitors who arrived that morning. He proudly pointed to a photograph of himself and Chicano actor/comedian Cheech Marin, who is a big collector of Chicano art.

Over the years Norzagaray, who wears Southwestern jewelry, jeans and black boots, and ties his graying dark hair into a short ponytail, has exhibited in the Los Angeles area. One of his works, “El Rosario,” was included in the First Annual Nuevo LA Chicano Arts show. Another work was used in the promotional poster of the restaging of Luis Valdez’s play, “I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinking Badges,” in 2013.

Still, he’s an artist without a home. He’ll stay with friends or relatives. If he sells enough artwork, Norzagary rents a motel room. In Los Angeles he rents a storage room that he uses as his art studio.

“Sometimes I get tired,” are the words painted on the small work table in the DeGrazia gallery. He referred to his life’s trials as “speed bumps.”

He’s not sure why his struggles seem to persist — “Maybe to make me a stronger person.”

He draws much of his strength from his four sons, some of whom live in Tucson while the youngest lives in Los Angeles. Norzagary incorporates images of young boys in his work, saying they represent his boys.

Yet he doesn’t want his sons to follow his artistic footsteps.

While Norzagaray lives to paint, he told a Los Angeles-area newspaper that he doesn’t want his sons to take up painting.

“I really love doing my art, but it’s a hard life,” he told the Whittier Daily News in a 2011 interview.

Despite it all, Norzagaray said he’s made adjustments to his life.

“I’m just a simple guy who paints,” he said. “I have to uphold my dignity.”