Claudio Sanchez works on his mural on the side of the Innovation Pipeline building in Tyler, Texas, on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. The collaborative space will be open to the public at the end of this month. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The freshly painted mural on the side of Tyler’s Innovation Pipeline building was a labor of love.

Claudio “Beto” Sanchez has been working on the mural for weeks – spending evenings after work and entire weekends drawing and painting the mural on the east side of the Innovation Pipeline Building, 217 E. Oakwood St. 

The centerpiece of the mural is the words “Tyler, Texas” done in graffiti-style text, with a meditating woman in the center. The mural has various animals and bright colors.

“I’ve always been a big fan of mural art – I think it’s pure,” Sanchez, 33, said. “You’re not selling it, and you don’t have to pay to see it. It’s there for the people to enjoy for free. I think that is the ultimate for a painter is for people to see your work and feel it and understand it, or make something of it for themselves.”

The work also has a pure back story. The city contributed $2,000 for the mural, which is a fraction of what the work is worth in time and paint. Sanchez helped raise additional funds for materials from local businesses.

Sanchez spent his early childhood in Mexico, where murals are common.

“I always try to share more than an image, to share an idea,” he said. “It’s about trying to get people to see the magic there is in our surroundings and maybe change the way we consciously live in this modern world.”

Sanchez isn’t a classically trained artist, but he’s always been artistically inclined. Professionally, he works as an architectural drafter, but he’s been doing murals and public art for about seven years.

The meditating woman at the center of the mural is connecting to the world around her. She’s surrounded by various animals, which serve as symbols for characteristics or needs in the world.

“The images have layers of meaning,” he said. “There’s meaning to the colors and shapes, meaning to the strokes.”

Above her head are an owl and a parrot. 

Owls are considered wise. They can see all the way around themselves and are fearless hunters.

“Hispanic cultures thought they used to live in the underworld, and they traveled back and forth as connectors with the dead,” he said, adding they are a misunderstood bird. “They are the quietist birds. They get to their prey without their prey knowing. They calculate their attack.”

The parrot has longevity, and they are also adaptable. They do well in captivity and can survive in many environments.

“They are very persistent on trying to get what they want,” Sanchez said. “It’s a bird that is used as a connection between the person and the wild. You can teach them how to talk.”

That symbolism is the exact opposite of a bird at the far left of the mural – a resplendent quetzal.

The vibrant green and red bird, native to South America, is a symbol of freedom.

It does not live in captivity. If kept too long, it kills itself. For Sanchez, it also symbolizes living in the moment.

“It was sacred for the Mayan culture, and it symbolizes freedom – the unconditional love of freedom,” he said.

The mural also has a coyote. It’s a smart, curious animal that is hard to tame.

“Every time I’ve seen a coyote, it’s magical,” Sanchez said. “They stop and look at you, and analyze you and size you up. It doesn’t seem like they are trying to attack you, It’s more like they want to tell you something. They are not big animals, but they are powerful.”

There’s also a deer, symbolizing respecting the resources that sustain life, as well as a turtle carrying an hourglass, showing the movement of time.

Taken together, the mural is intended to show that the resources are already there to create, invent and do. For some, the Innovation Pipeline and its tools may be the missing piece for someone to create something meaningful.

“All the tools are available – it’s waiting on you to decide to do it,” Sanchez said. “The power is in you, and you have to find it. We have the capacity to do what we put our minds to do. We have these opportunities in Tyler and in America – it’s waiting for you.”

Twitter: @TMTFaith

 

IF YOU GO

The Innovation Pipeline, 217 E. Oakwood St., opens to the public in an event from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday.