I want to explain here also story of Arturo Vega. In my opinion, Arturo is the most important surviving person in the Ramones family after surviving Ramones members. I mean with "important" word, that Arturo is the one who was always there with guys and he still does everything with a big heart. He really knows how Ramones history is.
After Joey, Dee Dee and Johnny passed away, some people in the Ramones family are also started talking shit of Arturo. I definitely know how mad Johnny, Dee Dee and Joey would get for those people. Every single one of Ramones members knew his loyalty was to the band as a whole and not to individuals. If anything, he was trying to protect whoever was the weakest in a certain situation.

Arturo Vega is born in Chihuahua, Mexico (1947) and was the Ramones creative director since 1974, he designed the Ramones' eagle logo and most all of the Ramones art, shirts, special collections, etc. He worked as the Ramones lighting director. With the Ramones he worked on 2 261 shows, and only missed 2 Ramones shows altogether. He definitely is/was one of their closest friends.

Arturo started the first official Ramones homepage in December 1999. By that point, I (Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone) was already into my fifth year of running my homepage. Arturo's site is now known as RamonesWorld.com.
At his site you can find the most fun and extensive selection of Ramones merchandise (store is here).

Arturo Vega has shared lot of his memories and photos in my books:
- Heaven Needed A Lead Singer: Fans Remember Joey Ramone (2002).
- Rock In Peace: Dee Dee And Joey Ramone (2004).
- Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives (2009).

Arturo Vega's loft is around the corner where was CBGBs club. Loft is definitely one of the most historic Ramones related location which still exists intact as it was originally. It is of course always really special to me to visit and stay at Arturo's loft, apartment where Joey and Dee Dee were living with Arturo when the Ramones were formed. Joey and Dee Dee were then only 22-23 years old. Arturo still has big work table where the record contract was signed for the first Ramones album. Arturo shares lot good memories also of those times in my books. It was great to include to my debut book also photos of Joey having his (last) 49th birthday party at Arturo Vega's loft in May 2000.

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ARTISTIC SIDE

About Arturo's arts. Regardless of his strong belief in the revolutionary force of music that is able to provoke changes in society, in his visual works he is also influenced by North American pop art. He makes a critique of the human necessity to form a part of capitalist systems, without really considering its consequences etc.

Arturo has had lot exhibitions. Here are information of his 30th Anniversary exhibition. From May 2011 to first week of September 2011, was the exhibition entitled Lie Cheat Steal at Galeria OMR in Mexico City, Mexico presented his works since 1973 (first were supermarket ads) to 2011. Exhibited: his general works and works related to the Ramones, like the logo of the Ramones, first Ramones poster (1975) signed by Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee and Tommy, stage backdrop (1978-90), Gabba Gabba Hey sign autographed by Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, Tommy, CJ and Marky, as well as posters of the band, and other items reflecting the strong influence of the advertising and music. Newest one are collaborations with James Rubio from 2011.

Here are some of his comments related to his paintings. Also a bit how Dee Dee started painting. So lot and lot Arturo's Ramones related memories you can read from my books (Order them here).

Jari-Pekka: Can you explain what kind of paintings you liked to do most in the 70's as opposed to now?
Arturo: I started painting around 1972, when I lived in New York. I think I started with what you may call pop art. I think the roots of everything I do are based on a pop art sensibility. The very first paintings in the 70's were the supermarket ads. Then I learned to silk screen. That's when I did the series of hands with a coin. From that experience, I got hooked on primary color things. A lot of the flags have a great deal of primary colors in them and I guess from the concept of the dollar representing commerce civilization. I started getting into the concept of buying and selling as a just commerce.

Jari-Pekka: When did you and Dee Dee decide to work on painting together?
Arturo: I started trying to convince him around 1992. My advice to him was to never do anything now that he couldn't do ten years from now. Start doing something now you can do for the rest of your life. You can write and paint your entire life. You are not going to be singing and playing punk when you are seventy! To make it easier for him to start, I suggested we do collaborations. I let him just draw or write something over some of my existing paintings I had already done.

Jari-Pekka: Can you explain about them?
Arturo: Well, the last paintings that I had been working on were very minimalist. Most of them were just squares. One side of the square was one color; the other side was another color. The very first time I gave one of these to him, he reacted to the high contrast between black and white and he did a piece called, The Good Dee Dee And The Bad Dee Dee. That's how he started. He would work on things that would represent duality. There were two elements of the square. He would work on the concepts or ideas that would either involve two individuals or some kind of duality. Since my backgrounds were of minimalist style, we called our collaborations minimal nihilism. I would do the minimalist part and he would do the nihilistic part.