Painting faces in search of myself and my mum

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Juano Diaz was taken in to care aged six, his mother was battling alcoholism and he wasn't being cared for. But Juano missed his mum and with no photos of her, he became obsessed by drawing her face so he wouldn't forget her. He was later adopted by a strict Catholic and Romany Gypsy family but when he came out as gay he was asked to leave. Now down-and-out on the streets of Glasgow, with his life spiralling, he started to search for his mother again. He would scan faces in the crowds, draw his own face to explore his features, feminise them to look more like his mum and soon he discovered his talent for portraiture. Today, he paints the faces of modern icons: Pharell Williams, Madonna, Vivienne Westwood. This would lead to artistic success and a very different lifestyle – including a friendship with Grace Jones and ultimately a whole new family.

Juano’s memoir is called Slum Boy.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Andrea Kennedy

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

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0:00.0	If a Banksy appeared on your house, you'd be sitting on a fortune, right?
0:06.9	But first you think you're gifted, but you're actually not.
0:10.4	This is a tale of two murals, Margate's Valentine's Day Mascara and the lowest off seagull.
0:17.3	And the true cost of free art for the people who have to live with it.
0:21.5	40,000 pounds cost per Anna.
0:23.7	We didn't know what to do.
0:25.5	Nobody's turned up to say, we'll help you protect it.
0:28.9	The Banksy story.
0:30.3	When Banksy comes to town, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:34.7	I remember drawing this stick figure woman with the big spider- eyelashes and, you know, the angled face and this arched red hair.
0:44.7	She had very Asian-looking eyes, very black eyes, very high cheekbones. It kind of became an obsession to just sit down with crayons and draw this woman's face over and over again.
0:56.3	That woman with the high cheekbones, the black eyes and the flaming red hair was his mother.
1:02.9	Huanos had been taken away from her age six.
1:06.2	His mom was deep in the grip of alcoholism, paying for it through sex work,
1:10.5	and Hualo was living in the fallout alcoholism, paying for it through sex work,
1:15.0	and Juano was living in the fallout that came with her chaotic lifestyle.
1:17.0	He had nothing really.
1:22.2	He struggled to even find food, but the little boy still missed his mom.
1:26.2	I wanted my mum as a wee boy.
1:29.4	A lot of the children would have maybe one or two photographs.
1:31.9	I had a photograph of my grandmother,
1:34.0	but I didn't have a photo of my mum.
	...

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