Self-taught Artist Applies His Talent to the Acoustic Guitar

by Staff.

While full-time U.S. Postal Service letter carrier and part-time guitar artist Louis Yanez will tell you, "I don't have any formal training in the arts," the skill with which he applies his natural talent to the bodies of acoustic guitars questions the necessity. Two of his painted guitars brought $11,000 at a charity auction and one he created in 2007 was given to Ringo Starr as a birthday present and is said to be on display at Starr's Los Angeles home.

51-year-old Yanez's guitar art career began on a small scale, literally. His path to painting full-sized acoustics started with the creation of miniature replicas of guitars associated with John Lennon for a puppet that Yanez, a long time resident of Maspeth in the New York City borough of Queens, uses on October 9 to commemorate Lennon's birthday. "I stand next to the entrance to Strawbery Fields [a section of NYC's Central Park that serves as a John Lennon memorial] and greet the people who come to celebrate his memory. I use a stick for an armrest which allows me to perform nonstop for the whole day. It's a joy to meet all the folks from all over the world who come there, and the looks on their faces when they see my performance is priceless."

Louis Yanez performing at Stawberry Fields:

Yanez's transition to painting full-sized acoustics was primarily the result of a request by high school friend guitarist Godfrey Townsend to paint five acoustics for use in the touring Beatles tribute show, A Walk Down Abby Road. "When Godfrey asked me to paint some of his acoustic guitars I knew I would have to get up to speed with the finer points of painting," says Yanez. "So I went to the library and took out every book about painting and color theory they had. There is a lot going on in a painting, and if certain conventions are not apparent, it is obvious to the trained eye of other artists. I wanted to have those bases covered and I think I achieved that. If it sounds like I just started painting out of the clear blue, well, it's true."

Since then, Yanez has painted a number of acoustics with an emphasis on '60s-style psychedelia, often inspired by famous album cover artwork and other well known imagery from the period. "What I think sets me apart from other folks that paint guitars is that I don't do any abstract expressionistic junk, no flames, no grotesque creatures, no naked babes, no grafitti, and nothing that was done by a guy who does airbrushing on choppers. I don't think the people who do that stuff are really serious about creating meaningful art on a guitar. I am."

Related Links
Photo gallery of guitars painted by Louis Yanez (Godfrey Townsend's website)
The Acoustic Arts (2008 Premier Guitar article on Louis Yanez)
Louis Yanez featured on the Luna Guitars website

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