Artist/Muralist, Manuel Villagran

Manuel Villagran

Art Over Adversity Written by Nathan Zanon Photography by Andrew Sumner and Daniel Garcia

“As a Mexican kid growing up in the South Side, I was under a lot of outside influences. The justice system made an example of me.” -Manuel Villagran

Manuel Villagran has faced plenty of challenges on his path to an art career, but the muralist/designer known by his pseudonym, Qué, continues to push through. His Instagram shows his extraordinary range of murals, signs, and merchandise, from precise lettering on business exteriors to expressive cartoonish characters. His work varies between bright and colorful palettes, softly shaded grayscale, and black ink on white paper.

A Bay Area native, Villagran recalls his early interest in art influenced by his older brother and cousin. “I would take their drawings and trace them when they weren’t around,” he says. “I kept drawing throughout grade school, getting into trouble for drawing Dragon Ball Z characters for money so kids could put them in the front of their binders…never stopped getting in trouble for art after that.”

“My early education in San Jose was a weird experience, I always excelled in art but not so much in other subjects.” Villagran describes the influence of gang culture in his young life, as well as a skateboarding incident that ultimately got him kicked out of Santa Teresa High School and sent him through a series of troubled schooling experiences. “As a Mexican kid growing up in the South Side, I was under a lot of outside influences,” he explains. “The justice system made an example of me. Anyway, everything happens for a reason, right? Having to bounce around high school programs to graduate on time eventually led me to the CCOC (Central County Occupational Center) program…and is what introduced me to graphic design and showed me that art actually has ways to employ me.”

After studying graphic design at De Anza College, Villagran began picking up side projects while trying to navigate the system. But nothing came easily. “I went through every struggle you can have—from not having support in what you believe you want to do in life to getting incarcerated for art,” he says. He spent a lot of his life bitter and angry about the circumstances he was put through.

He landed a number of sign art gigs and mural projects in gyms and at San Jose restaurant Mimosas. He collaborated with artists through the art collective Local Color. But for years, he only felt like art could be a side hustle.

“Working in the South Bay, it can be a bit difficult, only because of the amount of

gatekeeping there. I felt like I would never be able to do anything professional, especially when I couldn’t even get a job as janitor in certain buildings because of my record. And no matter how many strides I made, I felt like I was only going to be the artist that worked a fulltime gig at a grocery store and did art on the side–until I eventually didn’t do it anymore.”

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Villagran was put on leave, and the experience ultimately presented him with an unexpected chance to reassess his career and life. He wound up moving to Portland and quitting his grocery store gig to focus on art, discovering a slew of new opportunities in the arts community there. He became an apprentice at Local Boy Tatau, a tattoo studio across the bridge in Vancouver and began taking commissions on murals in the area.

“I’m not going back,” he says of his decision to dive headfirst into an art-focused career in the Pacific Northwest. And he credits his mentors at Local Boy Tatau for helping him gain focus. “They’ve taught me a lot about life, what’s possible and what’s to come, how to manage myself, keep my head organized, and to push myself every single day to become a better version of myself as a whole.”

Yet, despite the new city and surroundings, Villagran’s Bay Area roots will always shine through. His family, the local neighborhoods, the graffiti culture, and the San Jose sports teams are all part of his portfolio. And while his path took him out of the area, the artists and mentors who he found throughout his life are his biggest influences. “My homies are my biggest inspiration,” he says. “Everyone I associate myself with has a talent, whether it be music, sign painting, graffiti, muralists, tattoo artists—I see how all these dudes have put their all into something and make ends meet, hustling in all different aspects of their life.”

Lastly, Villagran has some motivational advice for anyone who, like him, has faced adversity in attempting to make a career in the arts: “If you’re a young artist and feel like you’re struggling, there is more out there! Whether you need to kick yourself in the ass to get going or move to a new setting to not be held back by all the things you felt weighing you down, just go for it.” C