A VERY PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE

Each of these billboards/bus stop shade walls is installed at a bus stop along a stretch of South Zarzamora, on San Antonio's south side. They are all double-sided, with matching designs on each side, along with a text label — Spanish on the side facing the street, and English on the other.

The first one (A Los Cielos / To the Skies) shows an Air Force C5 Galaxy transport plane taking off into the air. My father worked as a machinist on the C5A planes at Kelly.

The second one (Hoy Bailamos / Today We Dance) is a portrait of my parents dancing at Arturo’s Ballroom, which had been in that location for thirty years.

And the third one (Llevame a la Luna / Take Me to the Moon) shows my dad’s 57 Chevy “flying off the road onto the moon — I am the young kid in the back seat thinking he can go anywhere”.

This project was as much ‘construction’ as it was art. Each structure is heavy concrete and steel, and each was built partly off-site and moved into place with heavy equipment. Temporary structures were built at each site to protect the work from the elements while the work was ongoing. My team for this project included a metal fabricator, an architect, a fellow artist, and several craftsmen. I’ve included photos of both sides of each billboard, and some construction photos.