The Mueller Development Keeps Glowing with a Colorful New Mural

The paint was still wet when we first spoke to the artists selected to paint a mural on the Mary Elizabeth Branch Park pavilion in Austin’s Mueller neighborhood. It was dark outside. Ernesto and Cindy Hernandez, from the El Paso-Juarez border region and Oak Cliff, respectively, preferred cool moonlight to elevated daytime temperatures, so they often pulled paint across the walls after sunset. The pair had already worked together on a handful of murals across central Texas, and this one, installed where the Robert Mueller Airport once stood, would depict themes of “taking flight.” From the site where the Texas Farmers’ Market springs to life each week, this new Mueller mural would also highlight the natural world. 

Taking Flight

Gifted by Texas Mutual and the Catellus Development Corporation, in partnership with Raasin in the Sun, The Cathedral ATX, and Monica Ceniceros, the new Mueller mural arrives as the development nears the end of a two-decade-long growth plan. 

“This is considered to be an innovative community. It’s very forward-thinking,” said Ernesto, who saw the “singular” hummingbird as a fitting emblem. It’s the only bird that can fly backward and upside down, and as sacred animals, the tiny fowl also represents messages sent by ancestors, said the life-long painter. His work, like Cindy’s, often foregrounds spiritual themes and Indigenous stories. The mural’s feather image, for example, is one “heavily symbolic across many cultures,” explained Ernesto. 

Water conservation is a focus in the Mueller district, where residential and commercial landscape design guidelines called for 50% native plants to restore Blackland Prairie habitats with non-invasive, drought-tolerant species. Ernesto explained that responsible water stewardship remains key for indigenous communities, so local vines, plants, and flowers bloom in their design, but Cindy and Ernesto did not choose to represent those aspects alone. The ideas, like the Mueller neighborhood’s genesis, were community-based.

Community as the Artist

Upending the idea of the artist as a solitary visionary, the married couple welcomed input. 

“We had one day when people stopped by, and we started with words,” said Ernesto. “We just gave them markers and pieces of paper and asked, ‘What do you want to see?’” Input from multiple stakeholders necessitated multiple mural sketches, too. 

With roots stretching to the Coahualtican, Mayan, Toltecan, Apache, and Guatemalan people, the Hernandezes told us that wide involvement was exactly what their ancestors would have wanted. 

“We’re all artists,” said Ernesto. “We’re down to paint with anybody, especially people who say, ‘Oh, I don’t paint,’ or ‘I’m not an artist.’” 

Though stipulations barred it this time, Cindy told us that she and Ernesto often invite curious onlookers to join them in painting. “You get to see their inner child come out,” said Cindy. 

In a growing list of public art around Austin, the Mueller piece is sure to become a draw for all ages.