Francis "Cisco" Vargas, a well known and beloved muralist, pased away on September 7 following a brief battle with Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer and a stroke a week earlier. He was 64. Vargas was well known for painting murals in downtown Fresno, as well as at Letterhead and Walldog meets. He also travelled coast to coast in 1998 as "The Travelling Millennium Sign Artist", when he travelled from California to Florida and took signpainting jobs along the way.
We will publish a detailed memorial in the November issue of ST. For the Fresno Bee obituary, click here. If you do Facebook search of Vargas’ name, you’ll find an outpouring of kind words and memorials. Scott "Cornbread" Lindley, a Mt. Pulaski, IL-based signmaker summed up Vargas’ legacy beautifully on the Walldogs Facebook page: "He was dedicated to the Walldog cause and and lived it to the very end. Now it’s our task to carry on that same enthusiasm he had. Please continue sharing photos and your kind words. His family needs to know how important he was to this group and how sorely missed he will be. May his spirit lives on with every brushstroke we place on every wall from this day forward."
ST offers its heartfelt condolences to Vargas’ surviving mother and two daughters, as well as the many people who were touched by his life and work.