Visión del Futuro

San Anto Cultural Arts is in the business of public art. Our mission is to beautify the community by getting the community itself involved in public art works to build respect for the neighborhood and personal empowerment. To that end, there's a process involved with creating a mural, the steps of which include:

• Finding a black or tagged wall
• Getting permission to use the wall
• Writing a grant to earn money for the project
• Sending a call for artists
• Holding a community meeting to decide the mural's imagery
• Recruiting students and community members to work on the mural
• Putting up the mural
• Blessing the mural at an unveiling ceremony

I may have missed a few steps here and there, given that I have not yet been at San Anto long enough to experience the entire mural process myself. In late September, though, I had the chance to participate in the blessing and unveiling of our latest mural, titled "Visión del Futuro" (Vision of the Future).

A member of local band Pinata Protest adorns the mural.

We promoted it hard as the "nation's first 3D stereoscopic mural" (which, to our knowledge, it is). A sculpture of 3D glasses stands not far from the wall, through which you can gaze through the red and blue lenses and see the giant wooden shapes on the wall pop out in 3D.

Images of the future Westside include rockets, a bus stop on the moon, cockroaches, and of course Mexican food.

Our mural coordinator at the time, John Medina, intended the imagery and the dual color scheme of 3D to represent the coexistence of American and Latino culture in the Westside and in greater San Antonio. I wouldn't have thought of that if he hadn't mentioned it in his speech at the unveiling, but it certainly gives the work more depth than at first glance (no pun intended). Although the freedom to interpret a work of art is important, I wish there were plaques on pieces like this to communicate the meaning behind the imagery. I think people would understand the messages better, and from there on understand why public art is so important (aside from giving us nice things to look at).

Apparently we caught some flak for this mural, located at a five-point intersection, though as I'm not at the forefront of the organization there are many things I only catch through the grapevine. (One woman called our office to know what was so futuristic about tacos.) For my part, I stood by the bus monitoring the snow-cone machine and handing them out to guests. Not bad for a first mural unveiling, even though I had to strain to hear the priest.

They say that the murals depicting la Virgen are spared the tagging that otherwise find its way onto our public works from time to time.

What do you think of murals in your community? Working at San Anto, I'm coming to see the value of a community art work out there for all to see. Not only does it add beauty to your neighborhood, it's also a visual reminder of important messages we could use reminding about. You think the business association in Rancho Bernardo would let me paint on the blank side of the Albertson's?

I'm excited to watch the processes behind the two murals San Anto has planned for next year, for what little I know about them.

Until next time,

Caro