by Christopher Conway

Dallas is a great city for street art. My East and West Coast friends might not know it but it is true. Across Dallas we can find beautiful and provocative street art, whether it be in Oakcliff, Deep Ellum, or East Dallas. Street art is distinctive because it interacts with the environment, and with its historical moment. It is also a fleeting art form because it is subject to fading, defacement, and erasure. How many times have I driven past a great mural in Dallas and said to myself “gotta get a pic of that soon” only to discover later that it has been painted over? Now I swerve to the curb, park, and jump out to get a photo, les it not be around for much longer. In what follows I present a tiny sampling of Dallas street art with accompanying information about its artists. I thank each one of them for talking to me for this brief post, which cannot do real justice to the richness and variety of the Dallas mural scene.

“Michael McPheeters also known as MR.MURAL, is a multifaceted contemporary artist, activist and graffiti writer living and working in Dallas, TX. Originally from Los Angeles, he grew as a street artist and a scenic painter in the film industry. During the day his work is tailored to meet the needs of his clients, ranging from movie sets to high-end kids rooms. His large-scale works, most notably expressed by countless murals, act as spatial monuments to his ability to transform an area. As a Graffiti artist, MARXONE continues to use graffiti’s growing power as a visual mass-communicator to raise awareness of human issues, with his recent focus on modern-day-slavery. For more about Michael McPheeters.” Text from michaelmcpheeters.com , used with permission. Fronteras readers can also visit this artist’s work on instagram at @michaelmcpheeters.”

Susie Cortez had this to say: “The mural was created for 4 the Culture Studio. I wanted something that conveyed beauty, aesthetics and was a bit jovial and light. The reason why I created the girls was that I felt they represented what I wanted. In retrospect I wish I would’ve painted them a little taller but I feel that they still communicate what the studio is and represents. I love the feedback specially from kids, little girls who look up to the mural and see someone they can relate to. I believe Art inspires and uplifts, so I wanted to create a piece that the viewer when experiencing it, would smile. I believe I achieve that and that makes me very proud. I’m originally from Los Angeles, move to Dallas about 2 1/2 years ago to pursue being a full-time artist. The community here in Dallas has welcomed me with open arms and I could not be more grateful for the experiences and doors that have presented to me. I have grown leaps and bounds since being here in Dallas because I have been given the opportunity to travel more, to connect with like-minded people and also to get my work out to more people and to different communities. This has been an amazing experience, having my art so well received by the masses just means that I may be on the right track. Like I said before Art inspires and I feel that if I can inspire a child or even a adult to dabble in art, to open up their creativity or to just receive the aesthetic gifts of art, then they will embark on an amazing journey. We can never have enough artists in this world. After all, Artist‘s dreams create our culture.” To learn more about Susie Cortez and her projects, please visit her instagram feed @sooztheartist .

Hatziel Flores wrote us the following: “Thanks you for asking about the work. This is the “Trigger Fingers Project,” curated by Ray Albarez / Freshpaint Magazine / Dfwpaintdelivery with collaborating artists from around the United States. It was a three day paint event with the permission of the Deep Ellum Art Association and the Deep Ellum Self Storage providing the wall. The Mural contains Icons of graffiti and street art all coming together to bring life to a space and welcome creativity to enrich and hopefully prevent future defacing of the venues around the neighborhood. Each artists was allowed to paint what moved them and what they’re absolutely incredible at, with some teams collaborating to create a flow thru the wall. The first set of artists in the mural are CODAK / TUKE / SUB / EMIT creating a great production that speaks to their expertise. The second set was my team Optek / Saeb / Hatziel. We are big fans of pop culture and things that inspired us growing up we decided to use those influences to decorate our side of the wall as Optek created the Xmen wall as his influence and we moved to the Eva anime series at the end with fellow Saeb bringing the action figure style to the middle to keep the influence of item that molded our minds growing up. The execution of the wall went very smoothly as we are all professional graffiti artists and muralists. Everyone knew their part making it easy to work together and execute one of the largest walls in record time. As the wall continues each part of the mural has a story that follows the art of each artist that created it. You can see many of the artists and process images at @triggerfingersdallas on instagram.

Dan Colcer wrote this about himself and his mural: “I am a Transylvanian artist, studied Fine Arts in Romania and archaeology in Egypt, living in Dallas since 2008. Got involved in the Deep Ellum art scene and back then we were just a handful of people trying to keep the neighborhood alive. When “the investors” started to show up some used the local artists to enhance the look of the neighborhood and resale of some of those buildings and lots. 42 Realty was one major player. That’s how the 42 murals project came to light. My first year piece won the character prize as they had a contest that year too. It was called Catching Fish…I have a series of writer’s paintings: Hunter S. Thompson, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. I read a piece of their work and then created a painting. It’s an imaginative exercise. For this Allen Ginsberg piece it was the poem “America” where he says: “America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.” To learn more about Dan Colcer visit his website https://dancolcerfineart.com/ and check out his instagram @dcolcerart“

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