Local artist Chris Hurtado, who recently began working for the City of Socorro in 2020, gravitates heavily towards muraling and played a role in the creation of the Welcome to Socorro mural. Recently, Chris has taken the steps to broaden his artistic horizon in order to contribute to the ever-growing talent within Socorro.
Chris, who took up the arts when he was young, explained that his parents contributed to his early passion for visual arts, that eventually led to him pursuing it as a career.
“My father was in one of El Paso’s oldest car clubs known as NEWBREED, and he would work on and do body work on classical cars, and I would watch him work on these classical cars when I was a child,” he explained. “My mother was also a special needs teacher in elementary and high schools, and she would do arts and crafts with her students. So, I think they both kind of implemented that creativity into my life.”
Beyond his family, he also detailed the environmental and cultural influences around him that heavily impacted his attraction to muraling. Growing up in the nineties, he was able to see the golden era of Rap and Hip-hop music take over the nation.
“My cousins and other older people in my neighborhood would write on walls with aerosol paint and you would even see murals done with aerosol paint in music videos from artists such as Tupac, and Notorious B.I.G.,” Chris said. “I think I was about 10yrs old at this time when I decided to do the type of art I was seeing in my neighborhood and in the music videos in the nineties.”
As a current art student at the University of Texas at El Paso, Chris had the opportunity to participate in a workshop hosted by the Rubin Center for the Annunciation House, a non-profit organization that houses migrant families. The workshop consisted of a community engaged mural, that was created with a new-age art material known as polytab.
“When we spoke to Ruben Garcia, the director of the Annunciation House, he stated that he wanted us to create something welcoming, colorful, and joyful,” Chris explained. “Once we decided on a final sketch for our surfaces, we then began the polytab process. Polytab is a non-woven fabric used in the garment industry that is like interfacing. The material is lighter in weight than canvas and can take on the form of the surfaced it is being applied to.”
Essentially, polytab acts as a giant sticker that is hand-created by artists and can be applied to multiple surfaces such as the exterior of a building. The material makes the process of creating a mural faster and more efficient for artists.
“The advantage of working with this material is that you can work inside of the studio and don’t have to worry about running into any problems due to the weather,” Chris explained. “You can work with just about any medium on this material, once its prepped and primed, it is like canvas.”
And though polytab was a new skill for Chris to master, he insisted upon further developing it through the workshop as he saw it would benefit The City of Socorro through its art program SY!C, or Socorro Youth In Culture.
“It could be of great use to our SY!C Art Program here in Socorro, and it is a great way to create a mural with the youth and community and work inside,” he stated. “With this mural we can work inside with a well-ventilated space with no interruptions. Hopefully, we can apply a polytab mural in Socorro soon, so the people of Socorro can experience these murals of the future.”
The workshop came with more than just a new art skill, though. The Annunciation House provides housing for migrants, immigrants, and refugee families from countries in Latin and Central America. The artists had the opportunity to hear the stories of these families amidst their artistic journey.
“Most of these families migrate to the U.S. to escape violence and protect their children and families,” Chris explained. “Hearing what these migrant families go through in their countries and why they migrate to the United States helped me realized how lucky I am.”
In its entirety, the workshop proved to be beneficial for Chris, as both an artist and as a human. He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity and detailed what feelings he walked away with.
“I gained some humility and have a little more gratitude after this experience as well. I gained some knowledge on polytab, and I also now have more confidence as an artist,” he stated. “I’m all about growth in my life right now, so anything that’s going to help me grow, I am all for it. This whole experience was a blessing for sure.”