PRESIDIO — Over the past week and a half, Ramon G. Deanda has spent most of his days outside Don José, gradually filling in more detail on a mural that spans the bakery’s east-facing wall. Inside each letter of Presidio’s name is a painting-within-a-painting celebrating a different aspect of the local culture and natural world. “It’s kind of like a postcard, like other towns have,” he explained.
Deanda grew up working outside with his dad, so the June heat doesn’t bother him. The only thing that’s slowed him down is the constant stream of people stopping by to praise his work. Folks with paper bags stuffed with pastries pulled him aside to offer congratulations. At one point, Felix Anonio Contreras, the accordion player for local superstars Conjunto Primavera, stopped by to tip his hat.
Deanda has made doodles and sketches since he was a little kid, but started to become more serious about art around second grade. That year, his family moved to Presidio from Ojinaga. He hadn’t yet learned how to speak English. “I kind of went mute,” he said. “I started drawing more, so I wouldn’t go crazy.”
His skill in both languages grew alongside his artistic talent. The team at Don José has been supporting his work for a long time — his first-ever commission as an artist was at the same bakery, at age 14. “It’s kind of full circle, back to where I started,” he said.
He’s been expanding his repertoire ever since — and has the paint splatter on his clothes and truck tailgate to show for it. After high school, he followed his love of art all the way to earning a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of South Alabama in Creative Technologies and Practice. “[The degree] mixes different kinds of art, like sculpture, printmaking, digital art and all that,” he explained.
This mural project is his first in a few years, and has taken on extra meaning in the wake of last summer’s controversy around a downtown mural project. The now-defunct Presidio Downtown Cultural Association (PCDA) sparked a conversation about what counts as “local” art — PCDA’s chairs, neither of whom are from Presidio, lined up a series of artists from Terlingua and other parts of Texas to decorate downtown.
Deanda and other artists from Presidio and Ojinaga felt left out of the process, despite trying to get the city to fund public art for years. “I had talked to [former city administrator Brad Newton] about beautifying downtown, but that idea got pitched to other people,” he said. Since the mural project was scrapped, Deanda, Project Homeleaf and other local entities have picked up where the PCDA left off, bringing home-grown color to the city’s main streets.
The mural at Don José is puro Presidio, featuring prickly pear cacti, jackrabbits and a technicolor sunset. Deanda painted the city looking east toward the Chinati Mountains — how it would look viewed from Ojinaga, a nod to the relationship between the two cities.
Miguel Hernandez, owner and baker at Don José, was pleased with how the project was coming along. “It’s something new, something that the people of Presidio wanted,” he said. “The river is probably my favorite part, it’s symbolic of the story of Presidio.”
Deanda is hoping to wrap up the project this week. The finishing touches will be a larger painting of a roadrunner and a mockup of the city’s distinctive water tower — which also bears a mural in homage to Presidio women, painted by famous muralist El Mac.
He’s lined up a few more gigs as a result of the new mural at Don José, and has set his sights on opening up a studio just north of Las Pampas. It will have room for his printmaking equipment — and hopefully much more down the line. “I want to create a residency, so that other artists can come and work,” he said.
