Phase 1 premiered last summer as a wave of blue art work began to pop up on walls behind The Stack, along Clover Street. By June, the hues began to delineate the familiar faces of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Stevie Ray and Jimmy Vaughan, Freddie King and N’Dambi, weaving a historical visual account of Dallas’ roots in blues music.
The project consists of 21 murals by 19 artists and spans two blocks on Clover Street between Henry Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.
The initial 10 murals flow cohesively by following a palette of blue hues ranging from turquoise to indigo intertwined fittingly to honor the figures of the “Deep Elem Blues.” Twenty percent of the paint colors are complementary, adding a stark contrast meant to symbolize key components of blues history, such as the influence of the guitar blues.
Romanian muralist Dan Colcer and his wife, Cathryn Colcer, are the masterminds behind the project, which is spearheaded by the Deep Ellum Foundation and funded in part by private donations and by a Texas Commission on the Arts grant of $112,473 awarded last September.
The concept came to Dan Colcer in 2010, two years after he immigrated to Texas from Romania. Having grown up where American movies and music were forbidden, Dan yearned for the cultural experience Deep Ellum had to offer. When he arrived in Dallas he expected to see the robust music and arts scene that he'd dreamed of, but the heyday of what was once a freed man’s neighborhood for artistic expression had passed and the neighborhood, Dan found, had lost its glimmer and spark.
He had only Cathryn’s second-hand account of what once was.
“All that was left was the shell of the ‘90s and I had to just kind of fill in the blanks and tell him the story of how it was,” Cathryn says.
Deep Ellum Foundation executive director Stephanie Hudiburg, who first learned of Dan’s idea through Dallas photographer Sean Fitzgerald, believed his vision of honoring Deep Ellum's roots could anchor the neighborhood's culture. She set the wheels in motion to ensure the concept would become a reality that would pay homage to Deep Ellum’s essence.
“Deep Ellum has a distinct identity that has drawn people here," Hudiberg says. "It has a distinct culture that makes people feel welcome. It has artistic expression and opportunities that are unlike anywhere else in the world and we want to make sure that those things are uplifted and supported and are able to continue to blossom, even as the city of Dallas changes and more residents come from all over the country and things change because Deep Ellum has always changed and iterated.”
Between 2018 and 2020, Deep Ellum saw a 75% growth in residents and development of over 2.8 million square feet of new retail and office space. The Blues Alley project is a collective effort among artists, property owners and business owners to ensure the artistic culture of Deep Ellum stays rooted in the neighborhood.
Dan Colcer envisioned an immersive experience in which the neighborhood's historical accounts could be publicly accessible and would transport viewers into an oasis of blue tones depicting the blues’ greatest. The idea of a blue alley came from Morocco’s Blue City, Chefchaouen, where homes, buildings and pavement are painted blue to combat the scorching temperatures.
For the Colcers, using local muralists was non-negotiable. They say they felt the only way to marry the rich history of Deep Ellum and blues was to tell the story through the hands of those who have an intimate relationship with it. The Deep Ellum Foundation agreed.
“It's very important that the artists that are from, living and making their living in Dallas, who have experienced life in development, in any capacity, be the ones to tell the story, because we don't want someone else telling our story,” Cathryn Colcer says. “I find a lot of Dallas tends to bring in people from the outside … and they don't know what it's like to live in Dallas, so some of the usefulness slips through the cracks. And so we really got to be a grassroots project and everyone on our team all the way to the top feels that way.”
Phase 1 included murals by local artists Teal Suns, Alfredo Pina, Hatziel Flores, Alec De Jesus, Ebony Lewis, Jody Aderhold and Izk Davies. By the end of the summer 2021 the city was buzzing about Blues Alley and its additional phases, 1.5, 1.75 and 2. For this batch, the vision expanded beyond Dallas blues’ history.
“What the challenge is, is telling the story of Dallas' history, including Black history, and multicultural history along with blues in today's setting," Cathryn Colcer says. "This is a multi-layered opportunity and the project is much bigger than just Dan and I."
The additional phases paid homage to homegrown artists such as Andrew “Jr. Boy” Jones, painted by Hatziel Flores, and those whose influence was not concentrated in Texas, but are monumental to blues and Black history such as Ma Rainey, Ray Charles and Sister Rosetta Tharp.
Desireé Vaniecia's mural of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, part of the Blues Alley works in Deep Ellum.
Desireé Vaniecia
“Sister Rosetta Tharp was a badass, she really was, just the fact that she was doing those riffs on her guitar before anybody else was mind boggling to me, and the fact that there's not that much information about her is insane to me,” Desireé Vaniecia, the artist behind Tharp’s mural in Blues Alley, says. “I want people to see that and I want people to go look more into her because she's just an amazing figurehead when it comes to blues, but also the history of rock 'n' roll.”
Vaniecia concentration is rich symbolism in portraiture that emphasizes posture, gestures and composition. Her paintings often pay homage to the strength and vulnerability of matriarchal figures. The Deep Ellum Foundation allowed Vaniecia creative freedom and let her keep her signature style. She says their support in accommodating her postnatal schedule and artistic style is a rarity in the art scene.
“There's always been this joke, especially being a contemporary artist, that you have to go out of Dallas to get recognition and then you can come back and show in Dallas and that goes for being in a contemporary setting such as a gallery and being a street artist and doing murals,” Vaniecia says. “You don't really have a lot of support. They'll [art curators] go out and get other people before they actually reach out to you, so to have that opportunity and to have it in a place such as Deep Ellum feels great, and I am forever grateful for that.”
Alongside Vaniecia, JD Moore, Frank Campagna, Sanah Brown Bowers and Michelle Dekkers were added to the impressive list of contributing local artists.
KNON radio host Pat Bywaters, grandson of the celebrated painter (know as one of the Dallas Nine) Jerry Bywaters applauds the push for public art devoted to historical context. Bywaters, who spearheaded the restoration of the historically significant 508 Park building in downtown Dallas, says Dallas is quick to forget its roots.
“Dallas isn’t interested in its history," Bywaters says. "It always seems like it's ready to kind of move on to what's the latest new and shiny and seems to always be searching for the next thing, whatever that is, and maybe anything.”
For Bywaters, Blues Alley is a great step toward expanding accessible public art. With his own wealth of historical knowledge, he says he is able to follow the narrative and recognize the artists honored by the project, but he hopes that organizers can add context to the imagery to resonate with all viewers.
Hudiburg says future Blues Alley development will include QR codes linking to a website that is under construction. Light installations are in the plans to allow for the alley to be experienced at night. Future aspirations include projection art, interactive lighting and events such as block parties in the alley.
For now, the foundation has its hands full. The latest Blues Alley mural has just been installed behind The Factory. It depicts Erykah Badu, who will soon face a mural of Bessie Smith in a visual rendition of a jam session between past and present.
The next batch of local artists will be selected and contacted by March 4. Phase 2.75-3 has an anticipated completion date of April 23. Although mural subjects have yet to be unveiled, the foundation did suggest additions such as Whistlin Alex Moore, Wanda King, George Little Hat Jones and RL Griffin as suggestions to artists during the application process.
“All we want to do is tell the people who live in Dallas that we have a rich cultural history," says Cathryn Colcer. "If we allow the developers to pave over it and business as usual and we don't find a way to make the story accessible to everybody, it will slip through the cracks.”
