David Legaspi: Artist and philanthropist

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Artist David Legaspi, who passed away June 5, left an enduring mark on the Malibu community through both his murals and teaching young children to paint. Dozens of Legaspi’s murals dot the Malibu landscape on churches, schools, bridges and other public spaces. Photo courtesy Robyn Lynch

Friends remember the artist as a saintly figure, who gave away everything he had and loved teaching children to paint.

By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times

Muralist David Legaspi III’s colorful, fantastical imagery can be found on vast retaining walls, sports field embankments, school hallways, bridges to the beach, private home garages and even surfboards throughout the Southland.

When he died of a heart attack June 5, at the age of 51, he left behind a trove of public art that illuminates normally colorless building features, and a generation of local children who might not have otherwise ever contemplated an empty wall and been inspired to take up a paintbrush.

His unexpected passing left a legion of friends and supporters shocked and desolate at the loss of a man who, by all accounts, was as much philanthropist as artist, and who “radiated joy, beauty, charity and creativity,” Webster Elementary principal Phil Cott said.

“David was passionate, but he wasn’t possessive or proprietary about his work,” Cott said (Webster is home to a number of Legaspi’s murals). “He would always involve students and teachers to also be part of the project. His mission was to involve everyone, everywhere he went.”

Legaspi, a 2002 Dolphin Award winner, usually donated his work to local schools and churches and was, Cott said, one of the school’s most significant financial donors. He frequently donated painted surfboards or his own mural work for school fundraisers.

“A few years ago, he allowed us to auction off his services to paint a mural in someone’s home,” Cott said. “Ed Harris and Amy Madigan won it, then turned around and donated the mural back to the school.”

Cott said Legaspi not only encouraged youngsters to pitch in and help create a mural, he made it easy. In designing a birthday commission for a friend at Webster, the artist created a “Picasso-esque” design that was so simple and inviting, children and parents without a shred of artistic instinct could pick up a brush and add color without fear of intimidation.

Cott said the sense of community purpose that arose from that project is still a striking feature of the artwork.

Legaspi was raised in the Philippines and attended architectural design school there. But supporters claim that his extraordinary talent in design and illustration was divinely inspired.

Malibu resident Edward Brown heads Cohen Brown Management Group, Inc. He originally hired Legaspi to illustrate some motivational books and films and says he was “floored” to find an artist of such depth.

“David is in the top one percent of illustrators I’ve ever known,” Brown said. “But his sense of humor always made the projects better. His design perspective was left-brained and organized, but his renderings were purely right-brained and inspired. What you got was harmony.”

Brown was so impressed with Legaspi’s ability to turn points of instruction into concrete illustration, he hired the artist to paint a number of murals at his home in La Costa. The men became close friends.

“But David wasn’t about the money,” Brown said. “He would turn down commissions from me to go off and paint some mural at a school for free (there are more than a hundred Legaspi murals to be seen in Santa Monica and Malibu alone). David’s talent was a gift from God. I think of him like Mozart. Incredibly creative, talented and prolific. And now he has died way too young.”

Deirdre Roney is a Malibu artist, activist and philanthropist and was friends with Legaspi for more than 14 years. She says that when she met him, the artist, who was unmarried, was living in his car. They first collaborated on a mural project at Webster Elementary, where her daughter was attending school.

“David was saintly,” Roney said. “I’m not talking about a religious perspective, but something moral. He had this inherently pure, loving spirit that I’ve never seen before in anyone else. He gave away everything he did. And he brought out the inner artists in kids. He was never happier than when he was painting with them.”

When asked what she thought inspired Legaspi to create with such driving abundance, Roney fell silent.

“I think that creativity comes from inner inspiration, but also from a sense of pain,” she said. “David painted and gave everything away as a sort of expiation. In the end, it’s part of why we lost him. He knew he had health issues, but he wouldn’t stop and take care of himself.”

Roney declined to detail the source of Legaspi’s “painful” inspiration, but she is determined to insure his local legacy. She is working to organize a group of “David stakeholders,” to preserve some murals that are beginning to decay, catalogue others, and perhaps create a mobile museum that will comprehensively showcase the depth and breadth of Legaspi’s contributions to the local landscape.

“Losing David is a loss to the whole community,” Roney said. “It is important to me that we all take a piece of the light he shed.”