Don't you just love all the
great art here in San Antonio?
Of course, that's just unmatched.
Well, there is a local artist who's
making waves with his powerful portraits,
and he's painting with A purpose as well,
seeking more minority
representation within the arts.
Our photojournalist Justin Calderon has
his story and what the city did to help.
This guy in his cozy
home studio Coldrick Dallas
touching up one of his latest
piece is of course the hair is important,
meticulous with every brushstroke. Looking
for imperfections. Unseen to the
average naked eye. I can usually
tell when I'm not going to like it
when I'm about 75% of the way through.
He's a part of a new generation
of creatives striving for more
representation in the art scene.
As a young boy, he was inspired
to pick up a brush after a
middle school trip to a museum.
Is this huge pain in that
it's African American man?
That kind of resonated with me and it
just made me start thinking in middle
school about doing something that
represented people that look like me,
that newfound passion continued through
high school and even at you TSA,
my newer work is more collage and is
more focused on just the portrait.
Whereas my earlier work was focused
on skin tone and lighting and
getting the right mix is of this
different colors to make a skin tone
begin popping up at exhibitions.
Gallery's and speaking events.
A lot of people were taking notice of
a skill, including officials from the
city who had a very special request.
So they're like, hey,
we're doing this sculpture at MLK Park.
Would you like to design it?
And I'm like I don't know
if you've seen my work,
but I don't do sculptures.
I only do 2D paintings, right?
They're like no, no,
we want you to sketch it and then
will work with us to create.
Make it 3D right
though in unfamiliar territory,
Coldrick was not deterred.
You can kind of see the dimensions here.
He came up with this sketch,
which was the basis of a new sculpture
called Spheres of reflection.
He teamed up with various engineers and
fabricators to help bring his drawing.
To a 17 foot tall life seeking coldrick's
approval every step of the way.
I took Doctor King's ideology of you know,
representation and looking within yourself,
hence their reflection. The spheres are
reflective so when you go and look at it,
you can see yourself and you can see your
surroundings and think about change the way
that Doctor King you know his ideology was.
Also there's text on the spheres that
Doctor King commonly used in his
speeches and writings like change bold.
Dream so that people can look at this
while they're viewing the sculpture and
kind of remember what he stood for.
The spheres are also meant to represent her,
which are is extremely important in
the in the African American culture
that had to be in the sculpture.
Dal hopes the new piece would do more
than just enhance the landscape that
the people who view it with their
eyes would also take a moment to
view it with their minds and hearts
want it to be universal, you know,
to where people feel represented in it.
I mean, it feels great and it's
the start of the MLK March where
people can go and kind of see it.
I kind of want it to be like a symbol of.
Where people can start their
March and kind of reflect on what
what they're marching for, right?
I mean, it's exciting for me to be able to
create something that's sculpture, right?
And something that's going to be
there for for a long time, right?
Is is really impactful.
And if you're looking to make your
mark with your art to Coldrick
offers these parting words
it it is a risk. You know,
putting yourself out there,
but you never know how great you can
be until you actually do it right?
So take that risk.
Great day SA.
Yeah, really nice. I mean
you know it's one of those
those pieces that makes you think
and you watch you walk around
it kind of looks follows you,
I guess a little bit a little bit
and then the perspective changes.
Also love what he said about
her and how important that is
to black culture being mixed.
It definitely is and I'm happy
that I can wear my hair so many
different ways and represent my
culture well so that's awesome.
Well, that's pretty awesome.
And if you wanna see more of coldrick's work,
you can at the beautifully
black film and art showcase.
Happening all February at the slab.
Slab cinema art house at the Blue Star.