Artist Finds Words--and Work--to Live By

An airbrushed gray stone tablet tucked on the left side of artist Daniel Rey’s most recent mural reads, “Ad astra per aspera,” which translates “To the stars through difficulties.”

Rey’s retro pink, red and black depiction of icons Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and others decorates an outside wall of Sherman Oaks’ Iguana Vintage Clothing on Ventura Boulevard. But the phrase has meaning beyond the turmoil-filled lives of the stars he paints.

For the artist, who lives in his 1984 Dodge, the phrase represents his own struggle to leave behind his past which included a prison stint for theft and drug abuse, for a chance to make a living as a painter.

Besides painting signs and murals for boulevard establishments including Tae Kwon Do West and Lightbulbs Unlimited, the 42-year-old with the weathered face is at work on a second mural at Iguana, this one a street-scape of Ventura Boulevard.

In the process, Rey is working to gain respect for himself and his art through hard work.

“I’m going to have to give--and give a lot--before I reach what society considers a modicum of success,” Rey said. “Life is a struggle, but it’s always a struggle upward. We’re all going to the stars.”

Over a cup of coffee near a Studio City work site, Rey is just as likely to discuss his disdain for the anti-immigration Proposition 187 as to praise his favorite artists, among them Caravaggio, Botticelli and Salvador Dali.

He said he’s proud that he isn’t on welfare, although he doesn’t begrudge those who are.

Rey prefers, he said, to purchase clothing from Salvation Army, to rest in a sleeping bag in his Dodge, to bathe in fast-food restaurant bathrooms and to buy food, airbrushes, paint and a ladder with the money from his commissions--about $300 for the massive Iguana mural, for example.

Rey’s main comfort comes from knowing that he is finally an artist, after years of supporting himself with sales jobs and crime.

Iguana manager Dov Cohn said he would “absolutely recommend” Rey for future work. “But I wouldn’t have to say anything. You just have to see his work.”