Monuments of Man Murals

That's me giving the neighborhood kids a chance to help create a mural.

In my previous day's post I mentioned I'd be chatting a bit more on these murals that Alex Rubio and I designed and painted at the Mirasol Courts on the westside of town in 1988. The head of the Community Cultural Arts Program (C.C.A.O.) sent Alex and I out there in mid or late November. Can't remember exactly but it was a few weeks away from Christmas.

Part of the job was recruiting the neighborhood kids to help paint the murals which was part of the CCAO's mission. It wasn't simply enough to create a mural in these housing projects but it was also necessary to get the youth of the area involved in the process of mural painting. It would provide them with a unique experience, nurture a sense of pride in their community and who know, maybe a child might be inspired to go into the arts.

Alex and I spent quite a bit of time researching in the CCAO's library and the city library looking through stacks of books on ancient history and American history. This was way back before the internet but even today I'd prefer to look in the library first.



Monument #1.

We tackled the Aztec pyramids first. It seemed the easiest because we already had plenty of experience painting this subject matter in many of the housing projects, many of which were predominantly Mexican-American.

Our work schedule was Monday through Friday from nine to five. I painted the foreground images to the left and most of the Aztec calendar while Alex worked on the rest of the mural. I remember being a little concerned to the time it would take to complete the calendar as we had around three weeks to work on all the murals. While I obsessed over the Aztec calendar Alex began the next mural which is pictured below.

Monument #2

A week had already passed by the time this mural was started. Alex painted the majority of this one and I focused strictly on the mask of your favorite boy pharaoh and mine: Tutankhamun or King Tut as he is commonly known.

With the deadline a little closer and the imposing number of murals to be completed we decided painting on more than one mural at a time would be best. We probably could have painted a little faster on the Aztec mural and had more time for the rest but at the the start of the project that deadline seemed so distant. In reality, the deadline was tight making it impractical for both of us to work together on one mural from start to finish.

Monument #3. The little boy in the photo above lived in the apartment to the right of the mural.

Keep in mind that during all this time we had children that helped out too. If a child showed up and wanted to paint it we handed him a brush and guided him in painting in a particular spot, say the rocky surface on the lower right of Mount Rushmore. Sometimes there might a handful of kids and other times a dozen. When school let out in the afternoon they usually came our way after they had a snack at home. Some of the kids lived in the apartments adjacent to the murals. I think this project had the most kids participating that I can recall. In general, after 3p.m. our progress slowed a bit. When you have that many little hands painting sometimes Alex and I would have to fix things the following day.

If there were too many kids for us to keep busy on the walls I provided them with markers and paper so they could draw as we rotated the kids from mural to mural. When those murals were completed they could look at hem with pride knowing the had helped make them happen.

We finished the last of the murals a few days before Christmas. Back then I was single and had no expenses other than rent and utilities for my modest one-room apartment and gas for my car. That week I decided I would give them extra toys to find under the tree on Christmas morning. I headed to the toy store buying enough toys to fill a large trash bag and then called Alex to see if he wouldn't mind driving back to the site to deliver the gifts on Christmas eve. I

I had a red Chrysler Cordoba, my sleigh, which had plenty of room for the sack of toys in the back seat. I stopped by Alex's house after dark and headed for the Mirasol Courts. The weather had finally gotten very cold that week and it was pretty windy too. It seemed like the perfect night for our Yuletide task. I decided I wanted to remain anonymous and let Alex hand out the gifts while I waited in the car.

Of all the murals I painted over the years the Monuments of Man were the most fun. Ironically, the murals are no longer there. A few years ago the San Antonio Housing Authority, which is in charge of all the low income housing projects in town, demolished to old buildings to replace them with new ones. Unfortunately preserving those murals wasn't a part of the plan. Life is funny, huh? The joke was on us. The murals, which were supposed to last for years and years only exist now in photos and our memories and now on this blog. A miniature monument to the accomplishments of a small group of people brought together for a short while but creating memories that will last a lifetime... I hope.