By Sarah M. Vasquez
Take a walk around Alpine to explore the many works of public art adorning various buildings and unconventional canvases such as utility poles and dumpsters. These murals that were mostly produced by local artists display the town’s creative spirit and were recently named Best Public Art for Small/Mid Market by the Texas Travel Awards.
Local artist Deborah Allison painted a tropical paradise in the Chihuahuan Desert on two sides of the Alpine Medical Center. At Kokernot Park, the Sul Ross Art Club produced a pop-inspired design by Alpine artist Amanda Calhoun on a water tank at the park’s southeast corner.
The earliest murals originate in the 1940s with a historic map of the region painted by Enrique Espinoza inside the Museum of the Big Bend. Inside the Brewster County Tax Appraisal’s office is “View of Alpine,” that Jose Moya del Pino painted inside the then-post office.
However, it was the two murals perpendicular to each other at the stoplight on Holland Avenue and 5th Street that prompted other murals that adorn downtown Alpine.
Facing west on the wall of Vise Coffee is “Big Brewster,” which welcomes visitors with an introduction of Brewster County. There are images of defining faces and places such as the CF Ranch (a nod to the ranching heritage), Big Bend National Park that sits south of the county along the Mexico border and a steamroller train to signify the first laid tracks in 1882. The picturesque postcard that reads “Greetings from Alpine, Texas” makes it a favorite spot for an Instagram photo.
Muralist Stylle Read was commissioned by Kerri Blackman to paint “Big Brewster” on her then-gallery, Kiowa Gallery. Read has worked on other projects in town. The first thing he painted in Alpine was the West Texas themed mural near the Crystal Bar entrance, when it was owned by Larry McAllister in the spring of 1989.
He is also the artist behind “Ode to Reata” at Reata Restaurant that features the house from the West Texas epic “Giant” and actor James Dean on a horse. Guests at the Quality Inn are greeted with images of Alpine and the origin of the “murder steer” legend inside the hotel’s lobby, also painted by Read in 1995.
In 2013, Blackman recruited Read and local volunteers to paint what would be the first of six murals that were gifted to the city by Alpine’s Gallery Night, Inc, the organization behind the annual Artwalk art festival. The mural next to Big Brewster, “Poco a Poquito,” features a traditional Mexican calendar top with a man serenading a woman. Blackman had the idea to paint this mural in a weekend for the 20th anniversary of Artwalk. Read resigned the calendar art to include Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, which stands south of the mural.
The Mercado Mural came next in 2014 at the Big Bend Wool and Mohair in the historic Murphy Street neighborhood. The Cattle Drive Mural was completed in 2015 and reflects the region’s ranching heritage on the current KishMish Plaza, but the calendar image came from an actual calendar Alpine Lumberyard used to produce when it was there in the 1950s. Another mural honoring the Texas Rangers and the late Joaquin Jackson, a native to Alpine, was completed on the east wall of the Prescription Shop in 2019. One of the more visited murals mimics The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover as it features over 50 Texas musicians on the south wall of Printco.
These murals inspired the creation of Alpine Alley Art, also known as Mural Alley, that runs between Holland Avenue and Avenue E. In 2018, Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism, and Liz Sibley, owner of Galeria Sibley, brainstormed the idea as a way to revitalize downtown. Sibley and her friends, Carolyn Mangrem and Nancy Whitlock, recruited local artists to paint murals on their buildings. Since then, there are over 25 works of art to view throughout the block between 5th and 6th Streets.
Whitlock painted a native plant on the back of her gallery, while Pauline Hernandez incorporated ceramic pieces to create a desert landscape on the side of Mangrem’s building. Kerry Awn painted a large, vibrant map of the Big Bend region next to Tom Curry’s “Cruising Big Bend.”
The alley art has expanded east with a radiant mural featuring West Texas wildlife painted by Monty Welt, who is also behind a few murals in town, including the most recent tribute to Ozzy Osbourne on the side of Create Space art studio.
Welt also painted the mural celebrating the town’s Music Friendly Texas Community designation and the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve at the Alpine Visitor Center. The mural–designed by Ruggia –features a panoramic view of the surrounding mountains under a dark starry sky. At the right angle, Doug Moreland’s wooden sculpture of the howling lobo lines up perfectly with the full moon.
Across the railroad tracks, Welt along with Awn and Curry recently contributed to the beautification of Murphy Street neighborhood with new murals next to a wall with over 400 mosaic eyes. The mosaic wall was a community project spearheaded by Sibley, and serves as a glimmering reminder of Alpine’s thriving art scene.