APOLONIO (AL) ROMO
Born; December 17, 1919

Douglas, Arizona

My life as an artist had several starts.

I always liked to draw and paint; although I spent a lot of my childhood reading, mostly adventure stories. My early years in Arizona were not conducive to an artistic career. Times were hard and my sister and I were fortunate in being brought up by an elderly grandmother who had known such times in her Sonoran village home. Her village on the Bavispe River suffered from numerous Apache attacks!! She was an eyewitness to some of General Crooke's actions against Geronimo.

In 1937 I was invited to visit an uncle in Los Angeles for the summer and ended graduating from Polytechnic High School in 1939. On my return to Los Angeles from a year in Mexico, I became associated with a National Youth Administration Fine Arts Project under the direction of Beniamino Bufano, a sculptor who enjoyed the patronage of President and Mrs. Roosevelt.

My career as assistant in the mural department came to an end, as this country started to gear up for World War II. After 5 years of service during the war, I left the Army in poor health, and was unable to take full advantage of the GI Bill. I did spend two semesters at Ringling School of Art in Florida before I returned to Arizona where I spent a year at the Dale Nichols School of Art in historic Tubac, which was the first white settlement in what is now Arizona. My wife (who I met in Florida) and I moved to Tucson in 1950 after the birth of our first son. We have remained here ever since. I took whatever employment I could find including, sign painting, car dealership, restaurant work, service station attendant, part time work at San Xavier Mission, Tucson newspapers, and the Arizona Historical Society. All this time I kept up my art skills through workshops and sketch groups.

In 1967, after becoming too ill to continue working, I decided to see if my watercolors would sell. Having accumulated dozens of paintings through the years. I started by selling at a weekend outdoor art show, held at a place called Plaza Antigua. After 34 years I am still at he same place, having taken a small studio when the landlord decided to turn the area into an art loft of sorts.

Though many changes have taken place, I still love the locale, which has been so good to me. Not necessarily in a monetary way, but in my mental health.

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