{"id":445370,"date":"2026-09-23T18:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445370\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:14:19","slug":"artist-albert-gonzales-aims-to-plant-his-flower-murals-all-over-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445370\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Albert Gonzales aims to plant his flower murals all over San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales<\/a> is giving the city its flowers.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has planted his distinctive blooms \u2013 tall, bright flowers drawn with thick black lines \u2013 on buildings large and small all over the city. Some can be found in commissioned murals on businesses and homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A building on South Presa is among dozens of spots around town bearing public art by San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales. (Albert Gonzales)<\/p>\n

In addition to commissioned pieces, he has devoted some of his time since 2019 to his\u00a0Wabi Sabi Street Art Project<\/a>\u00a0– the works are named for and inspired by Wabi-sabi, a Japanese concept that emphasizes beauty over perfection.<\/p>\n

He attaches cardboard versions of his blossoms to abandoned buildings, adhering them with industrial Velcro. His long-term goal is to place those pieces in every zip code in the city. He’s documenting the project with photographs and he hopes to one day preserve it in a book.<\/p>\n

In some instances, he said, the buildings that once bore his work were later torn down.<\/p>\n

“I feel like my street art installations are kind of highlighting the sentimental value of what these places once were,” the\u00a0Lanier High School alum said. “My street art for me is a way of highlighting that or at least showing this place is special. It’s my way of giving the city its flowers.”<\/p>\n

In and out of galleries<\/p>\n

Gonzales’s work can be found in formal exhibition spaces, as well.\u00a0“Unconnected with a Sense of Belonging,”<\/a> an exhibit of some of his recent work, can be seen on the walls of the Palmetto Center for the Arts at Northwest Vista College through Oct. 9. And he is one of the San Antonio artists featured in a section of the “Tejano Legacy: Another American Origin Story”<\/a> exhibit at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.<\/p>\n

RELATED: ‘Tejano Legacy: Another American Origin Story’ spans nearly 400 years\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Alamo Colleges District<\/a> purchased one of his pieces, a triptych titled “The American Dream,” to display in its administrative offices. The system also commissioned him to design the T-shirts and stickers for the college’s 80th anniversary celebration and is working to acquire another piece.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales distinctive flower pieces can be found on buildings all over town, as well as in galleries and in private collections. (Albert Gonzales)<\/p>\n

“He has a very clear aesthetic, and its one that’s homegrown in San Antonio,” said Eric Castillo, associate vice chancellor for arts, culture, and community impact for the Alamo Colleges. “Everywhere you go, you’ll recognize something\u00a0– that’s the same one I saw on Broadway, that’s on South Flores, that’s downtown by the church.”<\/p>\n

Castillo sees something special in the work that Gonzales puts into making his art so accessible.<\/p>\n

“What I love about it is when we think about art in the art world historically, we’ve thought about white walls and you have to leave your home and leave your community to step into a gallery. He’s totally flipped that on its head. And now he takes art into our community,” he said. “Instead of having to leave, you can find one of his cardboard paintings on the side of I-90 near Bill Miller. He just finds ways to put art into the everyday.”<\/p>\n

These days, Gonzales makes much of his work in a large studio he shares with his wife, fellow artist Caroline Gonzales. The couple has two young sons, and many of the pieces in the Northwest Vista show were inspired by his experiences as a father and a husband. Some deal with his childhood, zeroing in on the weekends he and his brother spent with their dad after their parents divorced.<\/p>\n

“This particular variation of the series is, how do I tell this story of my relationship with the younger me,” said Gonzales, 35. “My wife told me, ‘The 8-year-old Albert would be so proud of you.’ “<\/p>\n

Drawing a new path<\/p>\n

Gonzales was always interested in art, but for much of his life, he didn’t think of it as something he could do for a living. That changed with a spur-of-the-moment decision in 2014 to quit his day job and support himself exclusively with his art.<\/p>\n

At the time, he was in a rough place. His roommate had bailed on him, and Gonzales had to move back in with his mom. He got around on a bike because his car had been repossessed. And he worked for CVS, spending his days reviewing customers’ insurance policies to determine whether the medications they had been prescribed were covered.<\/p>\n

“It was so depressing,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Local<\/p>\n

Local artist Albert Gonzales works on his Wabi Sabi series in a large studio he shares with his wife, fellow artist Caroline Gonzales. (Alma E. Hernandez\/For the San Antonio Express-News)<\/p>\n

One morning, he overslept and had that burst of energy that comes from having to speed through the morning to get to work on time. When he reached his desk and turned on his computer, he got an error message<\/p>\n

“I feel all of that adrenaline leaving my body, from the very top of my head all the way to my toes,” he said. “I remember telling myself, if you were an artist, you could have used that energy for maybe 12 hours. But now, it’s gone, and I’m stuck here for nine hours.”<\/p>\n

He did what he usually did when he had a few minutes to himself. He picked up a pencil to draw while he waited for the computer to reboot. He had a running joke with his manager, who would tease him about writing him up for doodling on company time.<\/p>\n

“Right when the pencil touches the paper, he taps my shoulder \u2013 ‘Hey, man! You’re going to get fired, drawing too much on the job!’ Kind of laughing,” he recalled. “And I get up and say ‘I quit’. He says, ‘Oh dude, that sounded like you were for real!’ I was like, no, I’m serious. \u00a0I can’t do this no more. I gotta go.<\/p>\n

“And in my head, I was thinking, what the hell you doing? I didn’t have money saved up. I had no clue on how to run a small business or make art.”<\/p>\n

Even so, he decided that the time had come for him to figure all of that out.<\/p>\n

Everywhere’s a studio<\/p>\n

He didn’t have a studio, so he would find public places where he would set up with his supplies and create. He’d strike up conversations with passers-by about what he was doing, and some folks liked his work enough to offer to buy pieces. He spent some evenings in bars, drawing scenes that he could sell to folks at the end of the night.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales stands on a street corner near the Quarry Village marketing his art. (Alma E. Hernandez\/For the San Antonio Express-News)<\/p>\n

He also took part in the First Friday art walk<\/a> in King William, finding a spot on the street early in the evening and getting to work. It was another way to make contact with folks who might want to buy something from him.<\/p>\n

That’s where he was on a pivotal evening. He had been paying a buddy $25 a month to sleep on his couch and was behind on the rent. If he didn’t scrape that money together by the end of the night, he’d have to find somewhere else to stay.<\/p>\n

As the hours ticked by, he didn’t have a penny more than he’d had when he arrived. No one was even acknowledging that he was there. Frustrated and exhausted, he started crying.<\/p>\n

“This lady comes up to me\u00a0– ‘Hey,\u00a0mijo, can I pray for you?,” he recalled. “While she’s praying for me, all this weight gets lifted off my shoulders\u00a0– needing to make money, needing to make my family proud, needing to do all these things\u00a0– that was just gone. And when she was done praying, I give her this huge hug, tell her I loved her, tell her how much I needed that.”<\/p>\n

Gonzales went back to his work with a renewed commitment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He soon felt someone watching him. The guy came up, talked to him for a while and offered to buy the painting he was working on. He also asked to see more work, and ended up buying six other paintings.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A painting from San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales’ Wabi Sabi series sits in his studio. (Alma E. Hernandez\/For the San Antonio Express-News)<\/p>\n

“I have been to that very, very bottom where I wanted to give up, but having a moment like I had, that reminded me \u2013 when you go after what you’re passionate about, what you believe in, you’re going to have those doubts,” he said. “That’s the toughest part, getting through that.”<\/p>\n

Planting seeds<\/p>\n

He’s on much firmer footing now, but Gonzales still makes it a point to work on public thoroughfares from time to time. Last weekend, he set up an easel near the corner of Broadway and Brooklyn, where a small garden of his work can be found on storefront. He posted about it on Facebook,<\/a> inviting folks to stop by for a chat and a free sticker.<\/p>\n

He sees those ventures as a way to raise his profile, but it’s also a way for him\u00a0to plant the seed that being an artist is a possible career path.<\/p>\n

“Growing up on the South Side and West Side, it wasn’t like, oh, being an artist is an actual thing you can do,” he said. “For me, going to all these different areas, setting up on a public corner where I can work and seeing kids as they’re driving by, if they honk or if they wave, that means so much to me. I wish I had seen something like that when I was a kid.<\/p>\n

“It\u00a0helps me to start, build and cultivate relationships and for me, that’s the most beautiful part of being an artist, is being able to have so many people that I’ve been able to collaborate with, I’ve been able to share my work with. In some cases, I’ve been able to help raise money for causes I also believe in in my heart. I feel really lucky and really blessed to be able to do that.”<\/p>\n

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This article originally published at Artist Albert Gonzales aims to plant his flower murals all over San Antonio<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio artist Albert Gonzales is giving the city its flowers. Gonzales has planted his distinctive blooms \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[44607,153737,153739,153738,57116,82,84,83,664],"class_list":["post-445370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-alamo-colleges","tag-albert-gonzales","tag-artist-albert","tag-caroline-gonzales","tag-gonzales","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-street-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}