Painting the Town: Muralist C. Joseph creates vibrant, boundless art
On the corner of West Church Street and Houston Avenue, two silhouette cowboys overlook a herd of cattle as they ride into a kaleidoscopic sunset that resembles ocean waves full of color, illustrating the deep-rooted heritage of agriculture in Parker County.
Completely covering the 40-foot-long aging brick wall outside of Sweet Emilia’s, a locally owned bakery in Downtown Weatherford’s Historic Square, “The Goodnight Loving Trail” is one of the most recent masterpieces created by Christopher Gonzalez — a North Texas painter and muralist.
More widely known as C. Joseph, the boundless artist has never wanted to place his art in a box — and he has the breadth (and size) of his portfolio to prove it.
The world is his canvas
C. Joseph’s collection of artwork is featured across a variety of canvases, including dozens of building walls — inside and outside — Nike sneakers, and even a couple of race cars.
His experience covers commissioned, residential and commercial projects, creating some pieces with total autonomy, while others have remained under strict guidelines from start to finish.
And while he said he hasn’t committed to a single art style yet, most of the work he’s created over the last two decades has used bright, bold colors to resemble a more modern, Warholesque appearance.
“I want my art to be known for loud colors and vibrance,” he said.
His specialty theme is music — his driving inspiration when he entered the art scene, he said, whilst his portfolio of music-inspired art primarily showcases a rainbow of bands and artists from the 1960s psychedelic rock genre, including Jim Morrison of the Doors, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.
The Cowboy
With roughly 20 years of artistry under his belt, C. Joseph’s mural art has mostly been a side job throughout his career — up until early last year, when he was furloughed from his position in the tourism industry as a result of the pandemic.
Though most would have found a job loss a major source of stress, he said it gave him more time to focus and improve on what he really loved.
“I was just kind of not worried about it, and I just went back to art,” C. Joseph said.
His feeling of hope sparked from a mural he had painted on Fort Worth’s West 7th Street — “The Cowboy” on the exterior wall of Chuy’s — just two months before he lost his job.
Hues of yellows, blues and pinks cover the 40-foot-by-14-foot mural, which features an outline of Texas surrounding the colorfully painted “Fort Worth” sitting beneath a large magenta heart.
A cowboy and four vibrant steer - painted with a southwestern diamond-shaped pattern - perfectly display how the city’s new urban growth complements the cattle-driven roots of the Historic Cowtown.
Painted to mimic a vertical banner, on the right side of the mural, reads: “Cowtown, Funkytown, Our Town.”
C. Joseph believes “The Cowboy” was a career-changing mural that helped him become a full-time artist, he said on the phone Friday as he painted his newest mural — his second for the week — at Stumpy’s in Granbury.
Like most of his murals, it began with a doodle grid, often called the ‘lazy grid’ by European artists, a process that helps create reference points for large projects.
Instead of taking hours to measure, level and draw out a grid of squares, C. Joseph doodles hundreds of small designs, shapes and letters to save time before superimposing his illustration over it.
Recently, he has begun writing notes and sayings, instead of doodling, because it’s a good conversation starter, he said, and it holds more sentiment. This change began in late June with a letter he wrote to his late aunt beneath a mural at Methodist Dallas Health.
“It will be under the mural forever,” C. Joseph said of the letter.
A new respect for murals
For several decades, street art around the world has been stigmatized due to its long-standing association with violence and crime. But communities all over have recently learned to separate the act of graffiti tagging from the self-expression of mural art.
Now recognized as a form of inspiration, mural art is often used as backdrops for candid photos or creative advertisements for businesses — and often, both.
C. Joseph said he attributes some of the recent traction in his career to this newer-found appreciation for mural art and a greater interest from commercial industries.
Like much of the world, mural art in North Texas has been underrated — often an underground hobby — he said. Most of his murals have been private projects, commissioned inside residences or on interior walls of businesses.
“If you look at my work, it’s very diverse — mostly client-based because of this,” C. Joseph said, adding that this may be a benefit to his career. “I think what makes me different, what makes them look at me, is that I can paint anything.”
Now, the artist has successfully built a robust profile, a good-sized fan base, and an Instagram — of more than 19,200 followers — that flaunts a myriad of colors, styles and canvases.
Follow C. Joseph on Instagram and visit his website.
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