Category: Street Art

Postcard from Genoa, Italy: Vestiges from our visit

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Although he sailed for the New World under the Spanish flag, Genoa claims Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) as among the famous born there.

Genoa’s narrow, rabbit warren-like tangle of streets and intimate plazas in the historic medieval center, purportedly the largest intact in Europe, mainly defy access to anything as wide as a modern-day automobile. Centuries-old buildings reflect layers of changing architectural tastes in their facades. Ethnic shops crowd into small spaces in the heart of the city, while contemporary fashion is found on arcaded boulevards outside the walls. Elegant palaces and financial houses from Renaissance and Baroque periods line streets and the wide-open Piazza de Ferrari just outside the medieval walls.

Genoa is a rough-and-tumble jumble, a beautiful unpolished diamond inviting those living in the New World to explore the Old. Well, inviting except by that one grouchy tagger who dropped the f-bomb on tourists.

Street art entices venturing under the overpass

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Quincy and St. Mary’s Street under I-35. Not a destination that ever crossed our minds for a walk from King William. That is until this weekend.

More than a dozen San Antonio artists,* organized by the private artist-driven San Antonio Street Art Initiative, tackled the unsightly interstate underpinnings and redefined the homely parking lot leased by the Wyndham Super 8 Hotel into an admission-free outdoor museum.

Composed of leaders of the city’s vibrant street arts scene, SASAI’s mission is to introduce and educate the local community about street and mural art and make our city a destination for street art lovers….

We seek to build and strengthen a street art community here that extends across all areas, activities and people. Street art makes neighborhoods vibrant. Street art extends the arts community outside the walls of museums, brings people to see new places to live and play, provides fresh perspectives for the young and old.

We are focusing initially on developing a visit friendly area in the city featuring a concentrated number of murals that will draw daily foot traffic, cyclists and visitors looking for an alternative beyond traditional tourist routes and attractions.

San Antonio Street Art Initiative

Ana Fernandez
Mike Comp
Cruz Ortiz
Susy Gonzalez
Joe DeLaCruz
David Shek Vega
Mike Comp
Paul Garson
Joe DeLaCruz
Angela Fox
Joe DeLaCruz
Robert Tatum
Mike Comp
Mike Comp
James Supa Medrano
Paul Garson
Susy Gonzalez
Susy Gonzalez
Andy Benavides
Robert Tatum
Mike Comp
Los Otros (Nikolas Soupe and Shek Vega)
Justin Parr
Cruz Ortiz
Los Otros (Nikolas Soupe and Shek Vega)
Kelly Edwards
Angela Fox
Paul Garson
Los Otros (Nikolas Soupe and Shek Vega)
Alex Rubio
Kelly Edwards
Ana Fernandez
Angela Fox
Robert Tatum
James Supa Medrano
James Supa Medrano

This is an amazingly ambitious and highly successful project.

So looking forward to seeing more.

Financial support for continued artistic efforts is welcomed on the website.

*Identifying who designed each mural was somewhat of an internet scavenger hunt for me…. Corrections are not just welcomed but encouraged.

Viewing San Antonio through a Spaniard’s eyes

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Murals by Spanish artist Daniel Munoz, or SAN, transform window frames bricked in long ago on the back of the former home of the Beethoven Maennerchor in Hemisfair into points of interest. SAN peered into the city’s past and how it contributes to the city of today in recognition of the San Antonio’s Tricentennial. The mural on the back of what is now Magik Theatre was commissioned by the city’s Public Art Department and Luminaria working in conjunction with Ink and Movement in Madrid.

These cellphone snaps represent a small sampling of SAN’s images. Love the way he captured the man peering into the dime store to represent the impending desegregation of the lunch counter in San Antonio; four Blacks broke a major color barrier when they were served there on March 16, 1960. Wonder if the muralist knew the 97-year-old former Woolworth’s, regarded as a landmark in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, is endangered by the current version of the Alamo Comprehensive Interpretive Plan. The building’s significance for the community is obvious even to someone from another country.