New Mural in East End is a matter of Life and Death in Second Ward

Posted on July 10, 2018 by Hector Beltran under Press Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Joe L. Morales
[email protected]
Office: (713) 223-1167 Cell: (713) 933-4663

Angel Quesada, Artist
[email protected]
Instagram: @artkungfu
(323) 788-9463

An original mural created on the Morales Radio Hall by Houston artist Angel Quesada also known as “ARTKUNGFU” celebrates the culture and traditions of the East End and the historical 2nd Ward neighborhood using life and death as it’s theme. The mural’s launch/ unveiling takes place on Thursday, July 12, 2018 at Morales Radio Hall; 111 N. Ennis Street, Houston Texas 77003, 6-9pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The original mural was independently created at the behest of Morales Funeral Home and serves as a contemporary way to “up the ante” in the barrio’s efforts to maintain the community identity in these changing times. The conversation of gentrification is not new with several interested parties and agencies embracing the rebranding campaign to beautify the area called “EaDo” (East of Downtown). Soon to come is another original mural on the Navigation side that will celebrate the Second Ward.

The new mural was created in reaction to a neighborhood witnessing its shifting landscape and being supplanted by newer 3 and 4 story gated luxury residential complexes. It looks at the history and augments a sense of the familiar for people that live and work in the area. Much like the other two murals within walking vicinity by the artist, the Muertos Mural pays homage to the actual place in which it exists. Whether it’s the Muertos Mural at the Radio Hall, or the image of butterflies on flower tacos at Villa Arcos, or even the Aztec/ Mexican Eagle image at Doña Maria, Quesada’s colors surprise and delight. The mural is, at once, playful and engaging and behaves like a metaphor with a clear and readable message for any person regardless of their experience with art. The artwork strives to be a destination and cultural touchstone dually it is in conversation with Chicano muralist Leo Tanguma’s recently refurbished mural: “Rebirth of our Nationality” and achieves a brightening of an otherwise gray area of the East End’s bustling esplanade on Navigation.

The image itself is inspired by the notion of being firmly planted in a temporal connection to the past and the vibrancy of what is to come. Among many of Mexico’s long and rich library of themes and visual icons, the arbol was a fitting and dynamic way to present these ideas of place. The traditional arbol de vida (or tree of life) originally made with clay, is a well-known Mexican genre. One would find this theme of “genesis” in rural pueblos throughout Mexico, especially in the Oaxacan region and their respected lineage of ceramic artisans. In this mural, Quesada takes the dia de los muertos theme and gives it a twist.

Artist Bio:

Angel Quesada (a.k.a. ARTKUNGFU) has been making artworks for over 25 years. He began making large public murals in Texas starting in 2006 and has lived in Houston since 2010. He is a multimedia artist who feels strongly about the power of art in public places; “There is an inherent responsibility that we have to make art for all people”. His public narrative murals are mainly influenced by the location of the wall he is painting and are 85% spontaneous, allowing for the process to dictate the content. “People want to see something beautiful and meaningful when they are out in the landscape and I enjoy reacting to the environment and it drives the process.”

Much of the social activism and deliberate use of color and social themes that many of the Mexican muralists achieved in the early part of the 20th century are an inspiration to Quesada, especially Rufino Tamayo and Adolfo Best-Maugard. Simple shapes and lines, in conjunction with radical color combinations, create a visual vibration and help to tell a story in a very rapid way. This is frequently done with multiple layers of paint and color overlays. These artistic actions add visual weight and intensity to a landscape, imbuing it with more meaning. often transform into landmarks for our communities and resonate with playfulness and familiarity, other times they are destroyed by the elements or vandalized by others. Just as the Mexican muralists allowed for their works in the public domain to live free after completion, so too do the works by ARTKUNGFU belong to the public.

About Morales Family:

The city’s first Hispanic Funeral Home was also the first Hispanic-owned and run radio station, KLVL-AM. Morales Funeral Home and its Spanish language broadcasts for the Hispanic community listeners was a pillar for the surrounding area of immigrants and settlers in the 1940’s and 50’s. The combined presence of the funeral home and the radio station served as home for many. Programs like “Yo necesito trabajo” and other tejano musical guest artists brought helped give audiences a feeling of place and provided a way to earn a living for countless people The Morales family provided services to people who needed them, in return people were dying to get in. Needless to say, the ambitious entrepreneurial spirit the proprietors demonstrated that they took their civic responsibility seriously both in life and the hereafter.

Their legacy has continued as an anchor for the local community, especially second ward. Second Ward or “El Segundo” had its physical parameters just as other nearby barrios such as; “El alacran” and “Barrio Escondido” all of which fall of the entire east end. These neighborhoods shared not only cultural ties, but helped each other in a segregated section of Jim Crow Houston. Many of those families still live in the area and have much to say about all of the new traffic that generated restlessness about getting priced out of their family’s home.

Many longtime community members upset by the loss of their identity coalesced and formed grassroots efforts to counter the push for too much development too quickly. The Navigation area has carved out a place in the hearts and stomachs of Houstonians with restaurants like Ninfa’s El Tiempo, Doña Maria’s Merida, and Villa Arcos and many would agree the cost of losing heritage is a high price to pay.

Mural Unveiling
Thursday July 12, 2018. 6pm – 9pm
Morales Radio Hall
111 N. Ennis
Houston, TX 77003

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2901 Canal St. Houston, TX 77003 | Tel: (713) 223-1167 | Fax: (713) 223-8228
Email: [email protected] | www.moralesfuneralhome.com

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