Urban Art Gallery takes shape in a San Miguel highway underpass

The artist Eduardo (right) gained the help of Kansineede Graef, an artist from the Netherlands who heard about the Urban Art Gallery and volunteered. — Merle Herrera has made stunning progress in a day as her image comes to life. ————————————————————————–

It is Day Three of San Miguel de Allende’s first-ever Urban Art Gallery and the creations of our 10 street artists show an incredible variety of tastes, styles, techniques, and mediums.

What was mere sketchy outlines on Monday, became splashes and dashes of color here and there on Tuesday and by 5 p.m. today, their full-blown visions were apparent in all their glory.

And this once graffiti-splattered underpass of the Libramente will never be the same.

The brothers Juan and Carlos (on ladder) Nolasco apply fine touches to the mural of Efrain Gonzalez. They are working as apprentices. —————————————————————————————————

The artists will wrap up their projects by Thursday evening and the city’s Direccion de Culture y Tradiciones plans a formal grand opening of the gallery in the early days of December, according to Yundia Maribel Cortez, who has overseen this project for Culture Director Paulina Cadena.

At the end of the day, every artist present was tiptoeing on their ladders and scaffolding, trying to get in the last few brush strokes and misty spray can washes before calling it quits for the night.

While city workers remove her scaffolding at the end of the day, the artist Ana R gets in some last minute brush strokes. ——————————————————————————

Street artists work fast — perhaps a habit harkening back to the days when they had to work fast, while looking over their shoulders for the inevitable arrival of the police.

Street art is no longer outlaw art and its creators are respected contributors to the culture and unique flavor of the city. Mural art can be found in most every corner of the city, save of course the preserved in amber Centro colonia.