Karankawa Sun Dream and the Truth Teller
Cruz Ortiz

COMPLETION DATE
August 2022

LOCATION
William P. Hobby Airport, Concourse West Wall, Near Gate 1
7800 Airport Blvd
Houston, TX 77061

District I

CLIENT
City of Houston

SPONSORING DEPARTMENT
Houston Airport System

PROJECT BUDGET
$82,000.00

Image Credit: All images courtesy of the Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Photographers: Slyworks Photography

Project Description

With this work, Cruz Ortiz seeks to acknowledge the ancestral sacred lands and waters of the Karankawa and the Akokisas peoples on land in what we now call Houston, Texas. Cruz honors and celebrates these people's resilience and strength in defending these unceded territories. Cruz achieves this by establishing a narrative-based artwork fluctuating between transfigurations of indigenous influences and the cosmos. This intertwining fluctuation expands into a realm where universality angles into mapping possibilities into our future existence. It acts as a dreamscape for travelers that visually translates our past and future world, going beyond the human condition and presenting human possibilities. 

Artist Bio

Cruz Ortiz lives and works in San Antonio, Texas. In 1993, Ortiz co-founded San Antonio Cultural Arts. It is a non-profit focused on fostering human and community-based arts. Community-engaged art has led to the creation of the Community Mural Program. The Program is responsible for the creation of over 50 public murals throughout San Antonio. They range in style and size but share similar themes of community and hope. Additionally, Ortiz has served on the San Antonio Arts Commission in 2007, the Arts Commission of Austin in 2008, been a board member of ARTPACE San Antonio since 2018, and has been a part of the selection committee for Texas Medal of Arts from 2018-19. 

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