Mural represents progress of city, artist

Ozzy Villate is contemplating the world. It's not popping out enough.

"More shadowing," he says, to no one in particular, while hovering six feet above the pavement in a rented scissor lift.

The world is a figure represented in the mural Villate is wrapping around Henderson's Rainbow Club Casino. "The Promise" will be unveiled during a kickoff party for this weekend's 12th annual ArtFest of Henderson. (The party runs from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, and is free and open to the public.)

In addition to artists from across the country, ArtFest will include entertainment and food.

Villate will feature a dozen works in his booth at ArtFest, including the original painting and limited-edition prints of "Pyramids of Red Rock Canyon," which he applied to the side of the Fremont Hotel as part of the 2005 Las Vegas centennial mural project.

Scanning his latest fresco from left to right -- along the art deco waves representing Water Street -- reveals the history of Henderson. Its first industry was a secret refinery for bomb-grade magnesium during World War II, which explains the element's periodic symbol and the squadron of B-17s. On the right side of a fountain centerpiece, a seated man holds a book and an apple. These represent the literacy theme stipulated by the Henderson Public Library, a co-sponsor. (Mayor Jim Gibson launched the All People Promoting Literacy Efforts, or APPLE, program in 2004.)

Another story is told between the brush strokes, however. Nine years ago, Villate was a homeless drug addict.

"I was bouncing around all different sorts of neighborhoods," he says. "It was a torn-apart life."

Villate declines to reveal his drug of choice, and provides the vaguest smattering of details.

"Life had battered, beaten and scarred me," he says.

He prefers to stress how those 20 lost years ended when he met his wife, Neeka, and became a born-again Christian in 1999.

"It wasn't one of those instantaneous recoveries," he says. "It was a battle. But my faith eventually reunited me with my calling in life."

Villate -- born 47 years ago in Havana -- grew up in Yonkers, N.Y., in the artistic shadow of his uncle, Cuban painter Oliva Robain.

"I started imitating him when I was little," Villate says. "In grade school, everybody used to crowd my desk to watch me draw and paint."

"The Promise" is the fifth public art display in Henderson, following murals at the City Hall parking garage, Embarq and 7-Eleven buildings, the Muffler Shop and the Henderson Events Plaza. Commissioned for $37,500 (half of Villate's standard mural rate), it bears some resemblance to "Man at the Crossroads" by Diego Rivera. That art deco mural -- addressing the interplay among man, machinery and nature -- was famously removed from the walls of Rockefeller Center in 1934 for including an image of Vladimir Lenin.

"The Promise" had its own drama, on a much smaller scale. The first version was rejected.

"It was too artsy," Villate says. "I made it kind of impressionistic. They didn't really understand what I was saying."

Villate needed the approval of separate boards at the city of Henderson, the Henderson Public Library and the Rainbow Club.

"But when I struck upon the art deco theme, that hit a home run," Villate says. "And I'm glad the first one didn't go through, because I love this one a lot better."

Villate titled his third public art display after the promise of continued growth in downtown Henderson.

"But I started looking at this painting and I said: 'Wait a minute. This is amazing because it's very reflective of my own struggles,' " he says.

"It's basically about the promise of getting rid of the past and growing into the future."

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.