Bruce Springsteen
Year: 1974
Location: 23rd and Guadalupe
Painted by: Kerry Awn, Rick Turner, Tommy Bee
Funded by: The Fog Foundation of the Pursuit of Happiness

I don’t know how those people got the video but here’s the story behind the original: Freddie was in Austin to play at the Armadillo World Headquarters. Richard Halpin (Jail Arts & Education Project) got Freddie and his brother Bennie to play for the inmates at the Travis Co. Jail. The prisoners loved it. So did the musicians.

I shot it with help from William McLellan & Linda Evans. It was shot with a single tube camera and recorded on a 1/2″ reel-reel portapack.

It is funky old video but a record of a terrific performance and selfless act by the late great artist, Freddie King.”

“This is the legacy I’m going to leave behind,” Gonzalez says. Each piece is a reflection of South Austin, and as one of the founders of the museum and creator of the museum’s outdoor work, Gonzalez loves to share the stories with visitors.

Across from an overgrown cactus swallowing a compact car is a 125-foot memorial wall. The inspiration was to honor those who have kept Austin weird.

“Originally it was done for an exhibit for about a dozen of my friends who were in the music business, artists and different folks… I built them an altar,” he says. “These are the folks that actually made Austin the special place it is and that’s why we’re honoring them.”

The altar was built for a Dia De Las Muertos exhibit five years ago.. Dia De Los Muretos is a holiday in the Mexican culture when loved ones honor the dead. Children are remembered and celebrated on November 1, while adults are honored on Nov. 2.

Photos of the late Townes Van Zandt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Ann Richards hang on the wall above homemade shrines of candles, guitar picks and flowers. A multicolored banquette running along the wall allows visitors to sit beside the shrines and take in the museum’s other outdoor features.

A large stage in the northwest corner of the lot is adorned with the messages and drawings of visitors, along with a uniquely South Austin spiritual icon.

Gonzalez originally created the 5-foot wooden cutout of the Virgin of Guadalupe for the Good God Clothing Company. The thrift store buys and sells jeans, which is why the Virgin is painted in jeans and flip flops.

When the store relocated to South Austin from Guadalupe Street, the virgin was given back to Gonzalez out of fear of retaliation from the new neighbors.

Gonzalez decided to make her the center piece of the museum’s stage. “She over looks the whole parking lot,” Gonzalez says, sweeping his arm across the space.

Live music is played on the stage during the museum’s opening parties every six weeks.

The newest addition to the museum’s outdoor theme park came last June when Gonzalez began work on the south side of the property.

“(The museum’s neighbors) put up a chain link fence with razor wire on it. It looked like a concentration camp,” Gonzalez said. So he built a decorative fence to block out the eye sore.

His initial vision to take the fence as high as possible was curbed by city regulations. Following negotiations with the city, which included keeping the fence 75 percent open, it was re-designed with a star motif. “So now it’s turned into an art project that will join up to the other fence.” Gonzalez says.

The west side of the property features the ‘Back to the Beach’ installation, chronicling the migration of musicians and artists from Corpus Christi to Austin in the 1970s. The late Farrah Fawcett is one of the wall’s honorees, along with Pepe Cerna of ‘Scarface’ and ‘American Me.’

Larger scale projects are in the works, and the museum grounds will continue to evolve in the months ahead. Gonzalez is working on covering his side of the building with a tile mosaic. He also has other plans in mind.

“Eventually this whole parking lot is going to be painted up,” he says. “We’re doing a take on L.A. with Hollywood on the hills. Ours is going to have ‘South Austin’ in the parking lot in 15-foot letters and more art work on top of the roof.”

“When you go to Google Earth for 1516 S. Lamar, you’ll be able to see our parking lot mural,” he continues.

Gonzalez laughs as he raises his hands and says, “The only problem is – where to get all the (expletive) paint!”

Franklin created a collection of self portraits which speak to inner vision as much as the act of looking.

The South Austin artist, who signs his name JFKLN, has been sketching himself with his eyes closed for twenty years. The technique inspired Franklin to start painting his self portraits and has produced some surprising results. “I was astonished when I opened my eyes by how well everything fell together.”

“Each drawing has a different mood, a different expression,” Franklin said as he flipped through a sketchbook in front of him. “The more I do, the more that comes out. I’m discovering this is not just an exercise… as if any drawing is ‘just an exercise.’”

“This is a key part of making art, and understanding that and tapping into that is exciting as hell for me because each drawing is something I haven’t seen before,” he said, describing the theory behind his new pieces. “Intelligence is not just in the head, it’s in every cell of the body. What I think I’m tapping into is how much there is going on without the eye being in the dominant position of control.”

Franklin’s work has also led him to think about architecture. “You paint paintings on the wall and sooner or later, you’re going to see the wall and start thinking, what are you going to do with the wall?”

Specifically, he has been considering “architecture without cubism.” Franklin said he uses these concepts when he creates his paintings. “I don’t build my faces with cubes,” he said. “The cube doesn’t occur in nature. We impose it on nature.”

“Dream space is the only space not cubical. You go to sleep on a cushion with a pillow and you’re in this space, and as soon as you wake up, you open your eyes and you’re in a box,” he said.

“We adhere to cubism so thoroughly because of the convenience of construction,” he continued. “We have these arbitrary forms that are not related to our body, but they are designed to house our body.”

Franklin believes more natural curves and shapes should be used in the creation of spaces.

“We make houses to house our body, so why not make them so they’re sympathetic to the shape of our body?” he said. “I’ve always said, Americans ordered a house and they couldn’t figure out what it was, so they threw it away and moved into the crate.”

Franklin has been in the Austin art scene since 1965. He is well-known for his music posters and for being the main poster artist for the Armadillo World Headquarters. His work can be seen at the His work can be seen at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture.