Graffiti. A term often shunned by the finer arts community has long been an unspoken taboo that was thought to plague the city streets for decades. Often overlooked and ignored, Graffiti turned inward and created a subculture for the creative, innovative, and competitive youth seeking identity and self expression. The more society tried to eradicate it, the harder it fought. Self identifying names birthed innovative and colorful fonts. Fonts then added more colorful backgrounds. Backgrounds decided to take up whole walls, and letters transformed into large scale personal artworks. It is the competitive edge of these creatives that forced them to go bigger and better than the artist next to them, giving birth to the new genre of Street Art.

In recent years, Street Art, a once criminalized activity, has now caught the eyes of those who once shunned its presence. From businesses, corporations, museums, collectors and even City offices, Street Art has found its place as a newfound respectable artform. Street art is now woven into the fabric of neighborhood beautification and has proven to improve quality of life. It creates jobs, uplifts human emotions, and amplifies community pride.

Today we see the artform opening up to all creatives looking to make their mark in an impactful way. Studio artists, graphic artists, tattoo artists, digital artists are just a few traditional art practices that have now taken their skills to big walls and added the title of Mural Artist to their repertoire. Through the San Antonio Street Art Initiative programming, we have supported many of these broadened skill sets and have seen firsthand how these different disciplines are able to come together, along with their community, to share in the joys of Street Art and mural culture. We hope you enjoy learning more about the studio works of these San Antonio Street Art Initiative artists and gain a deeper understanding of the diverse talents we hold in our community and how important it is to support our cause.