San Antonio artist Joe R. Villarreal is renowned for his popular paintings, prints and murals in local restaurants. After working alone for years on what he hoped would be his first public sculpture, he now has two large-scale pieces that stand as gateways to his beloved West Side.
The two sculptures, titled El Papalote and El Trompo, are situated along West Commerce Street near the Frio Street intersection. They bring bright colors, a sense of animation and nostalgia for childhood fun to an area where bail bond shops and parking lots make up much of the landscape.
A public dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the two new sculptures will take place at 10:30 a.m. on June 25, with the artist and dignitaries from the Department of Arts and Culture on hand.
Blood, sweat and tears
Villarreal worked for 22 years at Southwest Research Institute as a graphic designer, learning many skills including building three-dimensional displays. When the 70-year-old retired, he devoted himself entirely to the artmaking that had otherwise preoccupied him since he started drawing at four years of age.
He put to use his display-making skills to painstakingly craft a monumental sculpture he calls El Icecreamero, a made-up word referring to the ice cream man pushing his cart of frozen treats through Villarreal’s childhood Westside neighborhood.
A stunningly realistic overlay of colored mosaic tiles depicting the ice cream man, with gray mustache and eyebrows under a hat, blue collared shirt and canvas work pants with a money changer on his belt and the bright white cart with delectable images of a popsicle, ice cream bar and cone, hides the welded steel tubing and wire mesh infrastructure underneath.
“I have photos of blood, sweat and tears. Actual blood, because you will cut yourself when you’re working with wire mesh,” he said.
Villarreal began working on El Icecreamero in 2012, only finishing in 2019 after what he modestly describes as “hardships,” including a bout with cancer followed by a heart attack and the death of his mother. The 13-foot sculpture now adorns his yard near West César E. Chavez Boulevard and South Zarzamora Street, pushing his cart toward a hopeful permanent home.
Receptive community
In the meantime, Villarreal answered a Department of Arts and Culture open call for public art in 2022. Two years later, his art and neighborhood presence are now recognized with two permanent pieces of public art: El Papalote depicting a kite made from a folded La Prensa newspaper, and El Trompo, a giant version of a colorful spinning top Villarreal recalls from childhood.
Department of Arts and Culture Executive Director Krystal Jones said she has long been a fan of Ray’s Drive Inn, a restaurant filled with examples of Villarreal’s art. When the artist was selected for the public art commission, “I was over the moon,” she said.
“He’s been a really prolific District 5 artist, his artwork is all over District 5 in restaurants and buildings and people’s homes,” Jones said. “The community has been extremely receptive and very excited for him because he’s well known for his portraits of life in San Antonio.”
The department’s outreach to neighborhoods and community advocates has resulted in a broader demographic of applicants, Jones said, including older artists like Villarreal.
“We’ve been so excited to give all generations of artists an opportunity, because they may have not had it in the past,” she said. “We’re making sure that they’re in the mix when it comes to stakeholders talking about who to select for a project.”
And Villarreal hinted that the two public sculptures are the realization of a lifelong dream, that he will be remembered when he’s gone. But there’s at least one more dream beyond El Papalote and El Trompo to be realized, of finding a permanent home for El Icecreamero.
“With these two I’m so happy, and if we could get the third one out there that would cap the whole thing,” Villarreal said.
