“It’s my park Day” T- shirt Design

For Austin Parks Foundation

T-Shirt design commission celebrating Austin’s “It’s my park Day.”

Guerrero Interno Custom Jacket

Since painting the warrior the first time, I’ve found myself continuously drawn to him. Placing him on this jacket allows me to share him with everyone around me when I wear this piece.

Sage & Sonder

at willa For Storybuilt Co

Sage & Sonder

30’ x 10’ Acrylic + Aerosol

1600 South First St, Austin, Texas

About the Artwork:

Artist Ruben Esquivel already made a splash at Willa with his beautiful murals of Texas’s popular animals and his first work with us, Seeds of Change. We were excited to get him back for a new project for Willa’s interior - a showcase of native Texas flowers blooming around the Willa logo, with several prominent honeybees doing their all-important pollination work.

Esquivel’s original plan was for a more two dimensional mural - closer to the designs he’d used for Willa’s animals. But he knew that working inside on such a big project would make using spray paint difficult and he made the decision to shift to all brushwork. Suddenly the project took on several new dimensions. This wasn’t something that could be done over a long weekend, so Esquivel set up shop in the lobby and worked while residents came and went.

Residents were immediately charmed (naturally), but also felt deep ownership and interest in the project. They’d stop to chat and ask questions. It became the highlight of a lot of people’s day to come check in on the artist and the art. The mural’s flowers are Indian Blanket, Mexican Hat, Bluebonnet, Texas sage, and Cardinal flower, and they also happen to be some of the artist’s favorite colors. Working with these vibrant shades for such a long time put him in a new place creatively. He was ready to try more detail in the brushwork on the bee, or in the pistil or stamen on a blossom. And when a resident asked if the artist could add a ladybug, Esquivel thought, why not? This was a community project and it had come to belong to everyone at Willa.

“I love hearing firsthand accounts of how it affects the residents,” he says. Having now met almost everyone in the building and chatted over 300 work-hours of painting, he’s made unexpected friends - sharing dinners, parties, and talk. A resident lost a loved one and took a minute to chat about it with Esquivel, who was grieving the sudden loss of his father as he painted. It was a moment he’ll never forget. The flowers took on a whole new meaning when he finished - rich and vital, beautiful and temporary This piece was more personal than he’d ever expected.

We’re all thrilled at how it turned out. We hope it will give joy and a real sense of place at Willa for years to come. StoryBuilt is pleased to make a donation to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in honor of the memory of Ruben Garza Esquivel, the artist’s late father, and to The Bee Conservancy.

The Pillars Project

for aUSTIN PARKS FOUNDATION’S EAST LINK TRAIL

Guerrero Interno 2.0, 2021

23’ x 8’ acrylic and aerosol on cement pillar.

PLEASANT VALLEY BRIDGE PILLARS AT ROSEWOOD PARK

About the artwork:

Every painted pillar tells a story, stories of people like Gilbert Rivera and his wife, Jane. "What I see is a real deep and heartwarming story about our family," said Gilbert Rivera. "Some of the images you see, there is myself, my wife, Jane, my father and mother, who have both passed away. And you see depictions of cucumber leaves, the purple leaves that are there from the time that we were migrant workers."

Gilbert Rivera was born on the east side of Austin and has lived his whole life there. "We always told people there are two cities, Austin, Texas, and East Austin, Texas – two different cities totally," he added. His story is one of many remembered through this public art project. "That came straight from the community. It's what they asked for," explained Kathleen Barron. Barron is with Austin Parks Foundation. It and other organizations made the Pillar Project possible to elevate east side artists. "There are not that many opportunities for East Austin artists to be represented in the part of town they have lived experience," said Barron. "This is the original photo that is taken by the journalist in '88," said Ruben Esquivel, a local artist.

Esquivel took a picture of Gilbert Rivera and made it art. Gilbert Rivera is a man some call a pillar of the community, but Esquivel calls him family. "It's just so special that [it was] me, his nephew, who was selected to paint it, because anyone could have done it, but the fact I did it makes it super special," he said. "Even looking at it now, I can't believe that I painted that. It's wild."

The project is currently up to 14 pillars. The 15th will be finished in January. The Austin Parks Foundation is hoping to eventually paint all 39 pillars in the green space underneath North Pleasant Valley Road. It's special for those sharing their stories, and also the artists. "Knowing it's going to be here for decades to come even longer than me, it's super special knowing my family's mark is going be here for a very long time," said Esquivel."The artists that are doing all of this are writing down our history through art, and if you look at each one of these pillars, each one of them tells a story, and those stories need to be told need to be shown. And hopefully more pillars will go up and more stories are documented," said Gilbert Rivera. It's all part of a public art project representing pillars of the community, painted on these pillars.

Excerpt from: Kvue/Austin