When Paso Robles Public Works Operations Manager David LaCaro isn’t making sure the city’s streets and storm drains function properly or playing drums in the popular and long-running local rock act The JD Project, he can be found with a can of spray paint in his hand creating iconic pop art portraits.
He currently has a rotating collection on display in Paso’s The Pour House, where he replaces them with new ones when they sell.
See the work, commission a painting or mural
David LaCaro has a collection of his pop art portraits on display in the Paso Robles hot spot The Pour House (525 Pain St.), but you also can see more of his work on his Instagram account, @franticcans75, where you can message him about having an original portrait commissioned or mural painted.
He’s also in the process of turning his original paintings into prints, so if you don’t want to spring for an original, you can get the image printed on a poster or even canvas. Contact the artist through his Instagram page for more information.
“Yeah, Biggie Smalls, we had Notorious B.I.G. on that wall,” LaCaro gestured. “There was a concert here, and a guy was looking at it, and he asked Leslie [Flynn, The Pour House owner], ‘Are those for sale?’ And she said, ‘Yeah,’ so she texted me. ‘Hey, come on down. There’s a guy that wants to buy this.’ I met the guy. I met his wife, and we kind of chatted it up. ‘I’ll take that off the wall.’ I’m like, ‘Wow. Oh, great.’”
They’re surprisingly affordable—usually around $800 depending on size—especially considering how much time LaCaro spends on each one. He’s even started doing dog portraits, which you can see on his Instagram @franticcans75, that are absolutely adorable and instantly iconic.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Northern California, his art education is entirely home grown.
“Yeah, there’s no formal training, honestly,” he admitted, “but, you know, I’d have to say it started all when I was probably 13, like middle school. I grew up in Davis in a group of skaters and punk rockers, and we’d go to punk rock shows and skated everywhere, and that meant going over to Sacramento, which is right over the causeway. Then I started getting into spray painting, and so, as a skater punk, you can imagine we were spray painting on trains. I was up to no good, running from cops and things. You know, young and dumb. And then I ran into a little bit of an issue.”
Sometimes mother knows best.
“My mom and I have a really close relationship, so she said, ‘OK, mijo. This is what we’re gonna do. We’re going down to Ace Hardware.’”
She bought two big pieces of plywood and a bunch of spray paint and set them up at home.
“She made the backyard into a spray paint playground, so I had all my buddies after school or whatever, we’d be just doing stuff on boards, doing that kind of stuff.”
It’s a tradition LaCaro has continued at his home in Templeton, where he has plywood attached to his back fence, and he’ll spray paint a mural, leave it for a while, snap a photo, paint over it and start anew. Let’s just say that the paint is thick!
He also recently entered more mainstream art channels, winning Best in Show and First Place at the Mid-State Fair for his painting of a boombox-toting b-boy. The painting certainly stood out from the norm.
“Typically, what you’ll see over there are a lot of landscape, a lot of vineyards, stuff like that. OK, that’s cool. But this is totally different. It was kind of shocking. I was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, this is all spray paint. They don’t even have a category for that.’”
LaCaro found his way to SLO County when he attended Cal Poly as an Ecology and Systematic Biology major. After graduating, he started a consulting business. He “bounced around” before returning to SLO as a part of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board for nearly a decade before joining the city of Paso Robles as a stormwater manager and “working his way up.” He’s been with Paso about 11 years now.
Thanks to his very smart and supportive mom, all LaCaro’s youthful punk rock energy was channeled into productivity.
“I just got off the phone with her before I got here,” LaCaro laughed. “I just connect with her really well and often. I remember my mom, at the table, she did some oil painting, took classes and stuff, and I’d just kind of sit around and emulate stuff like that with her on canvases. I continued to do spray painting, and most of the stuff I would do was just in my backyard. I’ve been in Templeton for the last 20 years. I work in a lot of different formats. I’ve painted skateboards, skateboard decks. I do different walls if I get commissioned by, like, a skate shop. Spray paint just became my medium.”
Friends suggested he start putting his work on canvases, and so he did, and because he’s a record collector and likes to paint musicians, putting his portraits in a music venue made perfect sense.
He’s now in discussion with Flynn to create a mural inside The Pour House, which recently underwent a major remodel. It’s become a very cool live music venue, and LaCaro’s portraits really pop against the black walls.
From Amy Winehouse to Johnny Cash to Tupac—LaCaro is an equal opportunity portraitist. Remember, he’ll even paint your dog. ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in March 26 – April 2, 2026.