It’s Star Wars day! What better way to celebrate than going to an alien themed McDonald’s for breakfast? It was super hokey, but fun, nonetheless! Steve begrudgingly took a photo with his new alien friend and I scoped out the nicely done mural next to the drive thru!

May the Fourth be with you!

On one of our last days in Carlsbad, we went to the neighboring town of Artesia. Artesia has been hard at work the last few years working to bring more visitors to the area - you can tell by all the newly installed artwork around town and that various parts are being fixed up very nicely.

Went to see this amazing new mural by artbyfish showing the Carlsbad Caverns, and came upon a strongman competition called King of the Cave. What a cool thing to happen upon! We watched the competition for a few minutes and were super impressed with everyone’s dedication and hard work! These competitors are amazing!

We took a quick stroll around Carlsbad, NM one evening in search of the town’s public artworks. They have an amazing plaza and arts center that has several murals and statues, but also a few murals around other parts of town. Even the police logo is artwork! Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious Mexican dinner with margaritas!

Our first stop of the year is in Kerrville, Texas. Kerrville is in the heart of Texas Hill Country and was where jewelry maker James Avery first began creating jewelry. We really enjoyed seeing the public art here and in the surrounding cities of Johnson City, Boerne, and Comfort.

We spent an afternoon walking around downtown Brownsville looking at the public art. There are cities where mural locations are well documented, but Brownsville is not one of them. It took about an hour of researching to find locations on 12 murals. Was it worth it?

While in Corpus Christi, we made a special effort to seek out this amazing piece of mural work by artist @erickarbeling . I first saw Eric’s work in Alpena, MI and instantly fell in love.

Corpus Christi has an amazing public art trail . It encompasses the whole city, but in one small area of downtown, you can see over 40 different murals. Some of these are permanent installations and some are temporary while buildings are being renovated.

The murals of Brenham, TX did not disappoint! What beautiful work by artists near and far.
Kate’s two favorites were the black and white of Blind Willy Johnson by Levi Ponce (with Rey Sepulveda, Nick Hernandez, Jose Ramirez, and Brad Stufflebeam) and the very colorful cowgirl and horse by Toni Ardizzone .