Joe Perez III’s murals are transforming Killeen
By Mandy Shelton | Photography contributed
From the intersection of Gray Street and Avenue D in downtown Killeen, observers can view three works of public art.
The military history mural is a full-color, 40-foot tapestry completed by the Killeen Arts Guild and community volunteers in 2016. On a Gray Street two-story formerly known as Hack’s Levi’s Headquarters looms a cowboy who has been repainted a few times over the years as his jeans fade. Finally, peeking out from an alley in the cowboy’s literal and figurative shadow is the newest addition to Killeen’s public art collection by artist and veteran Joe Perez III, who has completed public artworks at several locations across Killeen.
The most recent mural pulls out of the alley behind a train engine, the symbol of Killeen’s genesis. The far west portion of the painting depicts an engine car, complete with cow catcher, steaming past the rail station with downtown Killeen reflected in the window panes. Following that momentum in a cloud of locomotive exhaust comes a long line of Killeen’s history, rendered in a style reminiscent of both tattoo work and graffiti-style street art.
Perez secured permission from the building’s current owner, Levi Balfour, and painted his gratitude into the panorama. Other historical figures honored with incorporated portraits include Elvis Presley, Jackie Robinson, and local heroes Don Hardeman and Joseph Searles III.
The historical Killeen mural features a graphic sandwich board that reads: “Stay tuned…” with the requisite social media tags: @jperezartwork, #killeenart, #killeenhistoric. “While I was painting the mural, I wanted to capture the process and hashtag it so that it can be easily passed over to the officials who will streamline this on social media platforms,” Perez said.
Though the City of Killeen has not yet established an official arts district, grants are available through the historic district façade improvement program, which will fund up to 80% of a building’s exterior facelift. Perez has also created a GoFundMe campaign for the Killeen Art District Project, which has garnered donations from downtown businesses such as Hacienda Texas Realty. The $500 fund met its goal this summer.
The Art & More Store on 10th Street, just on the edge of the National Register of Historic Places downtown overlay, features a pair of Perez originals. A butterfly mural includes Instagram-ready wings, providing influencers with a photo backdrop worthy of its own hashtag. The Pepto-pink cinderblock building also displays a graphic heart that blends anatomical accuracy with symmetrical school-book doodle. Surrounded by bubbles and a rainbow palette reminiscent of Lisa Frank, the heart nevertheless sports wounds both old and new. The feathered ends of two arrows pierce either side of a deep scar, evoking el corazón of classic Lotería imagery.
None of Perez’s murals have official titles, but he often incorporates a business’s name or branding into his distinctive style. Gifted Hands Car Wash on Clear Creek Road features both interior and exterior murals, the eponymous hands cradling the business’s logo and a sudsy orange muscle car painted inside the office.
Loose Cannon Tattoo & Piercing on Elms Road displays another such collaboration: a full-size exterior paint job that contains “a lot of energy that illustrates war zones, tattoo art, and the Loose Cannon shop name,” Perez said. The mural also plays on Killeen’s military history, as well as the tattoo studio’s eponymous pun, but the narrative tapestry unfurls to include a battle between snake and shark in the debris of a shipwreck, an oblivious scuba diver floating straight toward the shark’s gaping maw.
“The kids from the area love it,” Perez said. He recalled how children cutting through the lot after school would “stop by and ask questions to feed their curiosity” as he painted. “Art is a great domain to start learning about each other and how we express ourselves.”
Just down Elms Road at the Fort Hood Street intersection, the lot containing Social Coffee Bar, Starlite Station, and the new Caboose Street Market food truck park is awash in Joe Perez III scenescapes. An “I love my soldier so much” selfie station, flanked by American and Texas flags, is situated on the northside Social Coffee Bar. The Killeen-centric sentiment echoes the iconic “I love you so much” wall at Jo’s Coffee in Austin (or, closer to home, the “I love tequila so much” homage inside Starlite Station, painted by Perez).
Just as the Jo’s Coffee mural has famously suffered vandalism and undergone repainting several times between the thousands of social media snaps, Joe’s artworks also run the risk of defacement. He’s not worried. “It’s part of the game,” said Perez, who often paints under the cover of night while listening to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. “I have no emotional connection to my murals once I’m done with them. If someone tags or puts up a burner over my stuff, the rule is it needs to be better than mine.”
Where to see murals by Joe Perez III
Social Coffee Bar
3300 S Ft Hood St, Suite A
Starlite Station and Caboose Street Market
3310 S Ft Hood St, Suite A
Loose Cannon Tattoo and Piercing
93 E Elms Rd
Art & More Store
614 N 10th St
Balfour’s Men’s Wear
318 N Gray St.
Gifted Hands
4701 Clear Creek Rd
Be sure to hashtag your photos #KilleenArt and tag @jperezartwork!
Burner—a piece of street art so good, it appears to burn through both the surface of the wall and the preexisting artwork. Joe Perez III said he welcomes the challenge.
