Paint the Town: The Wall Scrawlers of San Antonio Street Art Initiative
By Ayesha M. Malik
Photograph by Alejandra Sol Casas
Featured mural by Los Otros Murals
Street art is ubiquitous in San Antonio, but it wasn’t always this way. The artists behind some of the city’s street art murals don’t get the recognition they deserve for breathing color into this city—and even worse, have faced the stigma and criminalization of “defacing property.” San Antonio Street Art Initiative (SASAI), a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit led by artist-entrepreneurs David “Shek” Vega and Burgundy Woods, works tirelessly to turn all that stigma on its head and they’re painting the town red (and every other color in the rainbow). They’ve brought graffiti and street art out of the “seedy” shadows and into the mainstream, advocating for artists and providing much needed career development and business education resources – all while beautifying the city.
SASAI’s Brick by Brick and LOGIT: Largest Outdoor Gallery in Texas™ programs work with local artists to beautify spaces around the city (and we all get to enjoy it for free). It takes an artist’s lack of experience or irregular jobs and converts it into financial and professional acumen.
Undoubtedly, you have seen the fruits of SASAI’s collective labor of love for art – but you may not have known the minds behind the beauty at The Pillars at the underpass of Highway I-35 at East Quincy and North St. Mary’s and along the St. Mary’s Strip cutting through to Southtown. (Constantly unveiling new projects, SASAI is set to make a big announcement about a project on November 4 of this year, so save the date!) SASAI helps artists of all levels and walks of life establish themselves in the discerning art world (which is often ruthlessly hostile to newcomers and the nontraditional, especially graffiti and street art).
On a sweltering 100°F day, I sat outside with Shek and Burgundy while brunching at Candlelight Coffeehouse on the St. Mary’s Strip to discuss all things San Antonio street art. Little did I know, I’d be captivated by two hours of conversation about street art that I didn’t even notice the sweat trickling down my back. Shek and Burgundy recounted to me their love for the city, their struggles with creating art, and their desires to give artists the tools they need to succeed.
Courtesy of Shek Vega
What was San Antonio Street Art Initiative born out of?
Shek: “Street art is something I’ve always done. I always use ’96 as my year on the graffiti scene, but I was scribing on stuff in ’92. There’s a picture of baby Shek where I have my first fill-in and I was probably 15. Now, murals are everywhere in the city, but when I was doing the graffiti thing back in the day, it didn’t look like street art was going to be in its future. That bothered me, y’know? We were trying to validate it as a genre of art, but everyone had their ‘taboo’ glasses on to say, ‘No, that’s vandalism. That’s gang-affiliated.’ Kind of out of spite and anger of people not opening up to it, I used that energy to push forward to get graffiti validated and graffiti productions. I’ve got to use the right verbiage, because they’re different, but they’re all part of the same puzzle.”
You make a distinction between graffiti and street art. Can you tease that apart a little?
S: “Street art can be used as a newer, general term, but when it comes to graffiti artists, [some] don’t like to be called street artists. They’re graffiti artists first because graffiti is its own genre with its own origins, so it should be respected as its own class. Graffiti is focused on letters, text—stylized letters and text—and manipulating letter form. It’s associated with identity and ego, so to speak. It’s your advertisement [of your graffiti name and persona]. There’s more to street art than graffiti art – graphic artists, traditional muralists, visual artists taking a chance on painting bigger because street art is in the mainstream forefront.”
Featured mural by Paul Garson
So, earlier you used the terms ‘fill-in’ and ‘production.’ What do those mean, for the graffiti glossary? There’s a lexicon to this that I want to get straight for the layperson.
S: “Talking about levels of graffiti, I’ll start with the tag. That’s your signature [as a graffiti artist] – a stylized signature, like handwriting or a script [unique to the artist], a language for graffiti writers. Not a lot of people can read it, they’re all different. And somehow, other graffiti writers can read it. It’s like having a hundred different languages and still being able to understand it. I laughed today because I still read graffiti everywhere. Old habits die hard. I look at spaces and think, ‘Oh, I could paint that’ – I won’t. You go through a series of names, fine-tune it to your personality. What letters you feel inspired by, play with the shape and style. Some are sharp, some are round. I eventually landed on ‘Shek’ – I liked the sound and the ‘kick’ of the ‘K’ at the end. It’s kind of like signing off.
How did graffiti become something bigger for you?
S: “People are seeing the power of street art and the good it does for communities – enriching and empowering them. But, it all stems from graffiti, vandalism, expression through whatever means you have. Our schools didn’t have well-funded art classes, and I’m talking in high school, we didn’t have more than a box of colored pencils and computer paper where teachers told you to ‘be creative’ and you’re like, ‘how?’ Graffiti was fun, innovative, [more than] colored pencils and typing paper. It forced you to make your own tools. ‘Oh, you made a marker out of a deodorant stick.’ You were like little scientists with your crew. And then you have to have execution. Next day, you take the picture and you feel prouder than you’ve ever felt because you put time and effort and you risked a lot doing it. Graffiti is a young man’s sport and I’m getting older, but I still love to create and I still love using the tools that I used back then to do what I love.”
Then, you have throw ups: more bang for your buck, quick, big [outlined] letters. Then you have your fill-in, where you actually fill in the hollow letters and it shows you took more time and you have more guts to take that time.
Then, there’s a piece, which is more like a masterpiece – a stylized version, where you get really intricate. You take your time; choose your colors; add the style and decor inside the fill, which is the colors inside your outline.
From there, you have your crew, an assembled team of artists to do productions, where everybody could either do their own piece, they can do matching colors, or the in-between is a scene that you all decided on and work on as a team. That’s a graffiti mural or production versus like street art now. Productions have individual graffiti names incorporated. ”
Courtesy of Shek Vega
How did graffiti become something bigger for you?
S: “People are seeing the power of street art and the good it does for communities – enriching and empowering them. But, it all stems from graffiti, vandalism, expression through whatever means you have. Our schools didn’t have well-funded art classes, and I’m talking in high school, we didn’t have more than a box of colored pencils and computer paper where teachers told you to ‘be creative’ and you’re like, ‘how?’ Graffiti was fun, innovative, [more than] colored pencils and typing paper. It forced you to make your own tools. ‘Oh, you made a marker out of a deodorant stick.’ You were like little scientists with your crew. And then you have to have execution. Next day, you take the picture and you feel prouder than you’ve ever felt because you put time and effort and you risked a lot doing it. Graffiti is a young man’s sport and I’m getting older, but I still love to create and I still love using the tools that I used back then to do what I love.”
Featured mural by Kelly Edwards
How did you springboard from doing this for fun as a youth to where you are today? What impact have you made on graffiti and street art culture in San Antonio?
(Author’s Note: San Antonio artists are so very humble. Burgundy jumped in, “Hopefully, [newer street artists] know the name Shek Vega, because –” before Shek very bashfully interrupted to meep out an “It’s oka-ay.” Burgundy, loudly proclaims to advocates to his credit, “It IS OKAY! It’s an easier time to do [street art].”)
S: “[Making it easier for new street artists was] what the work was about. It wasn’t about [taking credit]. They don’t know that they weren’t able to do what they’re doing now, years ago. Me and two friends, Victor Zarasua and Michael Velasquez, threw our first graffiti festival in ’99 here. We were graffiti artists looking for a wall to paint and we found this old lot. We asked, ‘Hey, can we paint this wall in the front?’ And they said, ‘You can paint the whole thing,’ and that became the Mecca of street art with permission to paint. Instead of gatekeeping, we spent twenty bucks to make five-cent black-and-white copies of hand-drawn flyers. We had about 70 artists come in from LA and Chicago, some from San Antonio.
Now, I make a living off of street art as a working artist who fought for the genre to get it to the [recognition] it needed for me to be able to be a working artist. If I was just doing it without pushing the movement forward, I would not have made it. I would have had to move like so many other artists have. They’d go to Houston or Los Angeles or New York [when they get dejected that] ‘It’s not going to happen for me in San Antonio.’ But you know what? I love it here. I love my family, the food, the culture here. Why do I have to leave?”
Burgundy: “I remember having to come home to San Antonio – not by choice, my mom got sick. I had been living and working in the arts in LA successfully for over 10 years, and I was worried, ‘How am I gonna make a living in SA?’ I had been gone for so long that I didn’t know if San Antonio had room for creative fields. Long ago, when I left SA, you couldn’t even imagine making a living out here as a creative. That’s why I left. I wanted a creative career and I wanted it to be exciting. So yeah, Shek’s right. It happens. Creatives leave.”
S: “Twenty years ago or more – man, there are so many stories, I should write ’em all down. I’m sure every street artist has them. Being out in these streets, you see sh*t that you never would have thought. You’re out during hours nobody’s up. So, with all of my expendable energy that’s not being used to run from cops and jump over fences, I used that energy to be the outlet that was not there when I was a young creative. You can be an artist, thinker, creative— as opposed to everyone telling you ‘It’s never gonna work.’ I make a living. And I’m able to thrive, give back through guidance and encouragement. Why am I at where I’m at now? It’s because too many people said ‘No.’ I didn’t think that was fair to artists, but also the city’s [cultivation of] growth and culture. And especially because I had that attitude as a young skateboarder, punk rocker— you can’t tell me ‘no.’ I’m gonna skate here anyway, paint this anyway. I’m not hurting anyone.”
And how exactly did that creative passion translate to advocacy for other artists and the genre?
S: “The fight from graffiti to street art as we know it now – I wanted to be a working artist. The fine art world rejected [graffiti style and tools] like ‘Hell no.’ Every organization here did not want to be associated with the artwork that I produced. That didn’t stop me. So, I took it seriously as an artist that just happened to work in other mediums, nontraditional mediums, and got a studio. The space I ended up in was 9’ x 40’ at the 1906 Warehouse. It was like a shotgun—two buildings that they happened to close in. They had a couple of galleries there, two or three. I thought this was a great opportunity. When they opened up, I could open my door to show street artists that also weren’t just doing graffiti and had canvases at home they could show off, too.
Gravelmouth Gallery started in 2010, which was San Antonio’s first street art-slash-contemporary art gallery. Artists from my graffiti scene were in the forefront around these other galleries, but they were treated with the same elevated respect. If it wasn’t your cup of tea, then you walked your ass on, but if you found interest in it and you wanted to come take a look at what these street artists do when they have some time and get to understand it better, then come on in. It just so happened that a lot of people came on in.
Photograph by Alejandra Sol Casas
Featured Mural by Paul Garson
I ended up taking the bigger studio of that whole building the first year and I ran it consistently. We had everything from top contemporary artists, to Chicano artists, sculptors, local heroes like Vincent Valdez or César Martinez showing alongside new up-and-comers at the time, like James ‘Supa’ Medrano. Gravelmouth Gallery went on until COVID, and then, like many, I shut the doors and I haven’t reopened, but there’s times for that later in the next few years. New things are coming.”
B: “Gravelmouth was groundbreaking. One of the things Shek fails to mention is that he took cues from elite art museums and organizations in how he presented the artwork. Pristine white walls, beautiful museum lighting, with street art on the walls hung perfectly – perfect lines. An experience with badass DJ music. When I moved back from LA, his whole gallery moment made me feel like ‘I’m home, I can make a living as a creative, and more importantly, on my own terms and by my own rules.’ That was the different inspiration Gravelmouth offered. It felt like, ‘There is something happening here and this is the floor.’ ”
What did you do to keep that forward momentum for the genre?
S: “Fast forward forward four more years [to 2014], I also started Los Otros Murals with my buddy [Nik] Soup. That would be the first, I would say, “official” street art mural. We let go of the graffiti and production thing, and designed the giant art piece on the old [San Antonio] Current building on Dallas and St. Mary’s [Street]. That would be the first, I would say, ‘official’ Street Art mural in San Antonio. That was the first one we decided to focus on creating a giant piece of art on the side of a wall. We wanted to do big art pieces to inspire other people to do it. In our heads, it would be competitive – someone sees us do it, then they’re gonna do it. We weren’t the first murals—we had the West side murals, historic and cultural murals. They all have their place and importance in our city. When we do street art, it was just a more personal representation of culture and being an individual.”
“You can be an artist, thinker, creative-as opposed to everyone telling you ‘It’s never gonna work.’ I make a living. And I’m able to thrive, give back through guidance and encouragement. Why am I at where I’m at now? It’s because too many people said ‘No.’”
B: “It was definitely the first organized Street Art piece. It’s kind of funny to think how differently people thought not too long ago, but yeah, some people were in a huff about it. I was working there at the time, and man, there was a buzz in the air. Half the people in San Antonio were excited because it was like, ‘Holy sh*t, what is this cool new street art?’ And then the other half were like,’I don’t like it.’I remember at the time, the guy who commissioned the wall confessed to me, A lot of people are scared of this. They’re mad at me for putting up such a huge street art piece. We might have to buff over it.’” [Los Otros Murals] was more contemporary, edgy, weird, sexy. San Antonio was like, ‘I don’t think I’m ready for that!’ And then other people, me included, were like, ‘Yes, finally, makes me feel cool living here.’”
S: “That was 2014 and it was still an uphill battle. We were trying really hard to get these murals up. City was still [apprehensive] like, ‘We don’t want to say we like it because we might get in trouble if sh*t goes downhill.’ So, everyone was cautious how they reacted.”
How did we get to all the colored walls we have in San Antonio today, given the divide at that time?
S: “It wasn’t until 2016 that Los Otros [Murals] got picked up to do the Spurs Playoff campaign. We spearheaded a lot of the design work in and around the arena, their digital promotions. When it comes to the Spurs, they got more sway than the local government.”
B: “That was the permission slip. Perspectives really changed after that.”
From Los Otros Murals, how did you get to San Antonio Street Art Initiative? How are you still creating after all these years?
S: “Los Otros [Murals] was painting and we expected everybody to start jumping in, but nobody did and we had to figure it out – it was an aha moment, ‘nobody knows where to start.’ So, 2018, we started San Antonio Street Art Initiative with the help of [now SASAI Board Secretary] Greg Rattray, and Burg unofficially at the time. We didn’t have the funding for it, but [his] support went a long way and nudged it in that direction.
The nonprofit [SASAI] started to help artists to find how to go about it, find their confidence, and paint on this kind of scale. As an artist, you want to create, show what you do. Somewhere along the line, my road and what I felt was important shifted. It wasn’t about me anymore. It’s for the future. Creating a mural business and having a street art gallery were only parts of the puzzle.”
Featured mural by Suzy González
What did SASAI do initially?
S: “Our first project was The Pillars [at the underpass of Highway I-35 at East Quincy and North St. Mary’s in 2018]. 16 artists – old school muralists with newer and contemporary street artists. The curation was so cool because they inspired and learned from each other [with different techniques, visions, and views on art]. It was such a new concept that we were so nervous no one was gonna show up to the opening. Then, at seven o’clock, when we opened, 250 cyclists all rolled in at the same time. Even today, there’s mural tours that run through there. We’ve created jobs for these walking and cycling tour businesses. You can see people shooting music videos; taking graduation, wedding, quinceañera pictures. Can’t believe we’re now at Phase VI.”
B: “It’s incredible what art can do to a space. Yoga classes and lowrider car shows under what used to be a seedy underpass with trash and needles. [SASAI Phase I: The Pillars] definitely gave it new life and motivated SASAI to keep going.”
S: “It creates a gravitational pull for the community. They want to see it, enjoy it. And once you have more eyes and people walking, the seedy stuff goes back into the darkness.”
What else does SASAI do outside of organizing, curating, and painting murals?
S: “My first graffiti graffiti job officially was a Pepsi commercial back in 1998. I was doing graffiti in the commercial. They only paid me $1,000. I was on billboards, coolers, all these promotional materials. And if I knew then what I know now: That was a huge project. Huge budget and production. So, what does SASAI do now? Alongside our job placement program, we educate, advocate for fair pay and business education on contracts, copyrights, taxes – all the stuff art school doesn’t teach you.”
I’m an Intellectual Property attorney, so I understand all that is vital. What holds artists back?
B: “No one ever ever wants to talk money. Artists fear backlash for seeking higher pay. They don’t want to get blackballed from projects or be seen as problem artists. I noticed so many creatives being taken advantage of or not being paid enough. Everyone was so afraid of contracts. Artists deserve to have contracts, too. I became a trusted ear to confess to and helped creatives get their paper in order. Discreetly. Everyone pretends to be an expert because they think it shows success, competence. So, we’ve managed to break that taboo by asking them, ‘What don’t you know?’ We make it okay to admit you need business help and we don’t gatekeep that information. [Examples are:] ‘I don’t know how to do my taxes.’ Well, let us show you! ‘I don’t know how to price myself.’ And that’s Business 101. I think San Antonio had this vibe where people felt they had to gatekeep information because they worked hard for it and [questioned] why people should have it so easily, but nothing was progressing. Now that we’re around as a resource, people don’t have to fear, for: one, asking dumb questions because there is no such thing – if you’re asking questions, you’re gaining knowledge; two, admitting they need something; and three, with our funding, it’s free, and as long as people continue to support us, it will continue to be free to our artists.”
S: “Any artist that we’ve worked with can call us at any time and text us if they have questions [about things like CVs, headshots, artist’s statements] and we’ll answer them to the best of our knowledge. And if we can’t help with a certain thing, we can connect them to IP attorneys, our attorney and accounting allies. In addition to developing a career mindset, we also help with their job placement [at SASAI]. If someone asks us about getting a project done, we plug them into the right artist who feels fit for that job and we facilitate that project successfully. We work between the client and artist. Once they get paid, we do a [post-mortem] for problems. Sometimes it’s a matter of changing developing artists’ mindsets from this mold of being frugal. Newer artists have a tendency to avoid spending the money they earn from our projects, not knowing that investing in themselves, their tools, and the business will make the job easier. It’s how you get closer to a full-time career. That’s why we’re able to paint the way we do, as fast as we do – and more importantly, gain repeat business. Financial intelligence is a huge asset for artists.”
Can you explain more about your career development and job placement program?
B: “SASAI has two main programs, Brick by Brick and LOGIT: Largest Outdoor Gallery in Texas™. Brick by Brick is year-round. The name is a play on the canvas we paint (exterior walls), but also how we help our artists with the foundationalbusiness skills they need to truly become a legitimate business, and these skills are built – you guessed it – “brick by brick,” so one lesson on top of the other. It’s what separates our art programming from every other organization in San Antonio. This program pairs artists with one-time wall projects around the city to beautify, but behind the scenes, they have access to receive this free business education at any level. We don’t have a set day where you come and learn – they can just call us during the project or after because opportunity never knocks when you have time. We help with their needs, and even equipment if we can, so the artist can produce professionally. Additionally, Brick by Brick is special because not only does the client get a beautiful wall, but the artist gets the experience and business education through the process. Once the artist gets enough experience and is ready for the gold, we have the LOGIT Program. We select ten artists to paint in a designated area once a year to show off their skills and to celebrate and be celebrated. It’s our annual fundraiser, which is a cool block party with music and community engagement. It’s our most popular program, with tons in attendance every year.”
S: “SASAI is an artist-led nonprofit, financially backed by our hard work and fundraising of the community that believes in our mission – a lot of smaller local donations versus large ones. It’s still very grassroots, which allows us to be independent in the projects we do. Of course, we love larger donations, but I’m content with what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Featured murals at The Pillars by Cruz Ortiz, Ana Laura Hernandez, Los Otros Murals, and James “Supa” Medrano (Left to Right)
Where is SASAI headed next?
S: The Eastside, where it’s a lot more industrial. [District 2] Councilman Jalen [McKee-Rodriguez] was talking on the news about how he wanted to get artwork there. He said he was a fan of what [SASAI] was doing. We gave his office a call and said, ‘We heard you were interested in our work.’ So, we found a way to work together and it’s been two years or so of planning to make sure we’re doing it correctly, incorporating organizations there like the Carver [Community Cultural Center]. We take a lot of consideration of the places we paint. We did a lot of canvassing to local businesses. We reached out to see how we can help and what they would like to see. They’re stoked and so are we.”
B: “[We] uplift and support what’s already there. We’re not trying to replace it. The Eastside is historically underserved. There’s not a lot of ‘neighborhood’ to enjoy [the area]. [The community and kids] should see something beautiful there and maybe kids will see street art as an option. Maybe even grown ups with talent will see an evolving culture of Eastside art that allows them to finally show it off. You never know. We just hope to uplift and inspire and to go where we are needed.”
And finally, what does puro mean to you?
S: “That term came out because Houston, Dallas, Austin have certain attitudes toward our city – y’know, San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the United States, but they think it’s a sleepy, one-horse town. San Antonio stopped striving to impress these other cities and embraced itself and found its confidence. Music, culinary, festivals, art that we have – that’s all uniquely ours. It’s who and everything I am. The generations that were afraid to speak up, their children are coming of age where they appreciate their roots, but put a contemporary spin on it. Our culture is always included in everything we do – we open bars like Squeezebox, restaurants, art galleries, and we all have love for our home. It’s self-made.That hard-working spirit is puro.”
B: “We celebrate the things that we thought made us underdogs. Sometime when I was in LA, SA embraced its essence [like tacos being a point of pride and creating certain types of art and music like rasquache or conjunto]. We amplify it unapologetically – we dance the way our parents danced, listen to the same music, drink the same ‘dad’ beers our uncles drank, but with a generational twist. This authentic local scene is as puro as it gets.”
What people, places, or things would you give your Puro SA Stamp of Approval to?
B: “Agosto Cuellar. You gotta go to his shop. Pioneer in fashion, his story’s amazing. [Musician] Nick Long.”
S: “Everyone in this city with that come-from-nothing, build-something spirit..”
Visit SASAI at https://sanantoniostreetart.org/ RSVP for their November 4 event at https://sanantoniostreetart.org/rsvp/, and follow them on Instagram, @SanAntonioStreetArt!
