The Summer of 1988

The summer of 1988 saw the official beginning of my professional art career when I was hired as a muralist for the Community Cultural Arts Organization. It was a non-profit organization that painted murals throughout the housing projects of San Antonio. The murals were subjects and designs reflected the neighborhood's culture and part of the mission was to recruit young people of the community to assist in the painting of the murals.

I had been only with the organization a couple of months when Alex Rubio and I were selected by our boss to create a painting commissioned by Father Elizondo of the San Fernando Cathedral depicting the acsension of the Virgen Mary to heaven. This was the first of many large paintings and murals Alex and I teamed up to create.

I don't remember how long that one took but I recall some of my fellow art classmates from the University of Texas in San Antonio helping out. My roommates Greg Pickens and Lisa Duck were there a few times lending a hand. The biggest challenge for me came when I started getting requests from the volunteers and workers at the church to paint there child or nephew or grandchild as one of the angels in the painting. Suddenly it became a portrait fest as I painted over a dozen child portraits. It was a a great experience for a recently graduated art student who a few months before had no idea how he would be making a living as an artist.

These are newspaper clippings showing the painting at an early stage. You can see a few of the portraits I've already completed. (Click on the images for a magnified view.)