BIOGRAPHY

Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1950, Fritz Ozuna now lives on a farm in the Hill Country, near Comfort, Texas.

Fritz makes colorful neon tubes that are used in combination with other sculptural materials.

Welded aluminum, steel, wood, stone, acrylic paintings, found objects, and other materials are brought to life when illuminated with his multi-colored neon “lightsticks”.

The appearance of his sculptures change as light conditions change, coming to full bloom as darkness approaches.  Colored neon reflected light is a special interest.

His work has evolved from fairly simple wall sculptures, to large wall and freestanding indoor and outdoor art pieces.

Fritz hopes in the future to build ever larger and more dramatic works that take his abilities and the materials  used to their maximum potential.

WORK HISTORY

Fritz's first job out of High School was picture framing at Marian & Cecil Casbier's Art Center Inc.

Sometime after College , In 1976 he played cowboy for a summer outside of Aspen, Co. where he worked on a horse and cattle ranch, and tried his hand at Western paintings. He then painted cars at a Corvette customizing shop. The sign business came next.

Fritz has worked with neon since 1978. The first years were spent doing commercial neon, with neon art as a sideline.

 Neon as artwork steadily became the focus of his work and is now almost a fulltime occupation.

Since 1999, his work has largely consisted of commissions, for private homes.

EDUCATION

Trinity University,  San Antonio, TX

San Antonio Collage,  San Antonio, TX

Hunter School of Art,   San Antonio, TX

Northern Neon Workshop,   Wisconsin

Welding Classes,  Kerrville, TX

SELECTED AWARDS

Julian Onderdonk Memorial Purchase Prize, San Antonio Art League Museum

San Antonio Art League, permanent collection

Certificate of Appreciation, Art in Public Places,  City of San Antonio, Texas

President’s Award, San Antonio Art League Museum

Best of Show, 2006, Sixth Annual Membership Exhibit, Kerr Arts & Cultural Center, Kerrville,TX.

First prize-Sculpture, 2007, Seventh Annual Membership Exhibit, Kerr Arts and Cultural Center

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

AT&T, Houston, TX.

Kraft Foods, San Antonio, TX.

Trinity University, San Antonio, TX.

Tivy High School, Kerrville, TX.

Houghton-Mifflin science text book-two page color spread of neon sculpture.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2002  GlassWorks Galleries, 2 man show San Antonio, TX.

2003 Sculptors Dominion Invitational, San Antonio, TX.

2003  A Neon Gathering, The Arts Alliance at Clear Lake. Clear Lake, TX.

2003 KACC, Juried Members Show, Kerrville, TX

             Honorable Mention

2006 KACC, Juried Members Show, Kerrville, TX

            Best of Show

2006 Artist of the Month, Bank of the Hills, Comfort, TX.

2006 Juried, San Antonio Art League Members Show

2007 Juried, San Antonio Art League Members Show

2007 KACC, Juried Members Show, Kerrville, TX

            First Place - Sculpture

The Daily Times

Ozuna chosen as Mardi Gras signature artist

From staff reports
The Daily Times

Published December 20, 2007
 

. . . chosen for Mardi Gras on Main 2008 and the medium is a little bit different this year. .

Fritz Ozuna has been selected as the signature artist with his electrifying work of neon art titled “Lightwaves 1”.

The piece will be revealed for the first time at the event scheduled for Fat Tuesday, Feb. 5. Fritz was born in San Antonio in 1950 and now lives and works on a farm in Comfort. He creates neon art with a combination of other sculptural materials, including welded aluminum, steel, wood, stone, acrylic paintings and found objects. These other materials are brought to life when illuminated by multi-colored neon “lightsticks.”

Fritz began working with neon in 1978 and spent his first years doing commercial work. Neon as artwork steadily became the focus of his work and now is his full-time occupation. Since 1999, his work largely has consisted of commissioned work for private homes.

The winning artwork will be auctioned live during the evening Feb. 5. The top piece also will be reproduced into prints available for sale at the event. The winning piece also will be featured on the label of the event signature wine, Frimante, a merlot by Messina Hof Winery of Bryan. The signature wine also will be on sale that evening.

Mardi Gras on Main will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Fat Tuesday, Feb. 5 at the historic Arcadia Theater in down town Kerrville. In addition to exclusive artwork, the event will feature tastings of fine wines, Kerrville restaurant specialties and the sounds of Harry and the Hightones throughout the evening. Entry to Mardi Gras on Main is $30 per person, and tickets will be available in January.
 

For more information on the event, call the Kerrville Main Street office
at 792-8395 or visit www.kerrville.org/mainstreet

 BUDWEISER COMMERCIALS

In September of 1983 Fritz made two Budweiser Beer commercials. He was working at his former father-in-laws sign business, and a couple of people had come by to talk to him, and ask a few questions. Fritz hadn’t paid too much attention to them, as he was busy working and it was not too unusual for people to drop by and ask a few questions and watch the neon-making process.
A few weeks later the people returned and told him that Budweiser wanted him to be in a beer commercial. Contractual terms were discussed;  Fritz was not to appear in any competing beer commercials for a time period--like that was going to happen--the contract was signed.
They gave him the story-line, which was to show him drawing up a neon sign pattern on asbestos, then show him bending the glass to the pattern, next a scene showing the process of bombarding the neon glass with 20,000 volts of electricity, and then filling the tubes with the neon gas.
This would cover the first day of shooting and was all to be done in the rustic shop where he was working.
The second day’s shoot would be on location in downtown San Antonio where an old house was renovated into a bar named “La Taverna” for The Tavern.
It was here that Fritz would be shown hanging-up the neon sign on the front porch. The sign would be lighted and people, then noticing the sign would flock into the bar for refreshment.

The Shoot

The camera crew arrived on a Friday evening with several cars, support vehicles and an RV that was to serve as a “make-up” room. They must have had a big electrical generator with them too, as about a dozen thick cables were run through the shop and back into where the neon department was. There a big movie film camera on a mobile dolly, multiple sets of Klieg lights, and big light reflectors along with all the thick cables on the floor, that made getting around difficult.
There were people standing all over the place, many were pretty girls, most it seemed were just chatting with others and sipping Perrier.

Fritz was lead to the make-up RV where he was darkened and otherwise made-up, one of his hands was made-up, as it was to be used when drawing the neon sign pattern.
Back in the neon department Fritz was told what the scene was to show, he told them how that could be done, a man would take a light reading, a dry-run would be made, then he would do it on camera.
There was a girl that would spray Fritz with “sweat” between takes to make it look like he was working hard., not that he needed any fake sweat. Everything seemed to go fairly quickly,
Before the film crew arrived Fritz had made two sets of the sign to be used in the commercials, – one extra just in case one was broken.
The glass he is shown bending, on film was just for the camera.

The next day Fritz arrived on location at the “bar” wearing a clean white shirt-he was promptly sent back home for a “work-shirt” and his apron. Once he was back on location it was decided that the sign was too big for him to hang by himself so his brother-in-law Mike was pressed into service. Mike had come along with his parents to watch the shoot.
The sign was hung from the eve of the porch.
The sign hanging scene was filmed using a “dolly-shot”, where the crew had built a track out in the street, and the movie camera was run along the track so they could get a more dynamic moving camera shot. Fritz’s work in the commercial was done.
The next scene was of the sign coming on, a crowd of people seeing this, rushes into the bar for cool liquid refreshment.
In the commercial, the two bar owners hug, and the Budweiser credits and music begin.

When all the shooting was over

The commercial was produced then put on hold.
Fritz had thought he was making one commercial, and started getting monthly checks. Later he started getting double checks and was told the film had been made into two beer commercials.
The commercial was on hold for about a year, and was shown for about year or so. Fritz was also given full medical insurance for this time period by the Screen actors Guild.
Year’s later people were telling him and his folks that they had seen him on TV.
A friend once told Fritz, that he had seen the commercial while watching the Super-Bowl game-that is doubtful. It was however shown every morning on a local TV station and that is how Fritz set-up and took some of the pictures shown here.
The work load being very heavy, there never was time to see about getting a film clip of the commercial.
Some of the income from these commercials was used in buying Fritz and his former spouse their commercial neon business in 1984, Neon Services Co. is still doing business today.