Article detailing story of the mural project that started my art career in April of 1988.My first art job, which I'd gotten just months before I graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), was painting murals for a nonprofit group called Community Cultural Arts Organization (CCAO). They were based on the west side out the Cassiano Homes. There I was, a soon to be Bachelor of Fine Arts degree grad with little knowledge of how to apply it to the real world. I could have easily been on the fast track to the minimum wage express were it not for an opportunity that popped up, seemingly out of the blue, for art students to design and paint murals on the walls of several homes at the Menchaca Courts.
Up to that point I'd only painted on canvases that were no bigger than 18"x24" so having a wall measuring 10'x30' for me to play on blew my wee little mind. Kablooey! Thus began my career as an art bum extraordinaire. I'm still not sure how someone as green as I was at the time could have been selected for such an honor. I have a hunch ,though, I owe some debt of gratitude to a certain guardian angel named Lisa Duck, who had recently completed her Masters of Fine Arts studies at UTSA and was working with CCAO. Were it not for her I would probably never have painted a mural. Thank you Lisa.
Incidentally, that mural job also led me to develop an interest in teaching art to children, which had previously never occurred to me. Years later, I'm still teaching classes for kids that have expanded to include theater, puppet and clown classes to which I give full credit and thanks to my dear wife for introducing me to that fanciful world. Life. What a rush!
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