For at least a decade, Tristan Eaton’s stunning new mural will be a Deep Ellum eye-catcher. It’s also a deep dive into local history.
An acclaimed artist and graphic designer based in Los Angeles, Eaton has worked with Nike, Versace and Barack Obama. He was commissioned by the NFL to illustrate tickets for the Super Bowl last year and was hired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to create indestructible gold paintings that went to outer space with astronauts.
His latest job is painting an 8,500-square-foot mural on the side of The Stack, a new office building on Commerce Street. Eaton and his team have been painting since March 2 and plan to have the work completed by the 17th. The artist also secured an agreement to keep the massive mural on display for at least the next 10 years.
“I’m getting old and cranky and these murals take a lot out of me,” said Eaton, 43, while standing on the roof of Angry Dog looking up at his mural. “I only have one setting, which is over the top, everything I can muster, working as hard as I can, bringing all the detail and love I can into the project. So, I don’t want to waste that energy on the wrong project that won’t be a good steward of the work for a long time.”
Eaton has large public murals in cities all over the world, including a 15-story painting in South Korea. For a New York mural he worked with a librarian to gain knowledge of local history. But for his Deep Ellum mural, Eaton talked with his friend, rapper Bun B, one half of the famed Texas hip-hop duo UGK. He also went to Fair Park.
“That was a nice surprise when I got here,” Eaton said. “All those neomodern and art deco sculptures and murals.”
There are countless murals in the entertainment district, but few acknowledge local history, especially beyond music. Images of Erykah Badu and Robert Johnson are typical in Deep Ellum, but Eaton is painting a portrait of a Black woman in a cowboy hat, which is a nod to the neighborhood being started by freed slaves and his solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
The work is a visual collage featuring native fashion icon Jerry Hall as well as the Tejas Warrior statue and gold medallion from Fair Park. It also includes a re-creation of a mural from Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas that was destroyed when the “Hall of Negro Life” building was demolished after the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936.
Eaton’s mural does feature Texas music icons like Badu, Buddy Holly, Bob Wills and Lead Belly. It also includes the words “Brotherhood Eyes” to reference the controversial weekly newspaper published by William Sidney Pittman, Texas’ first practicing Black architect who designed the Knights of Pythias Temple in Deep Ellum. The Dallas landmark is now a mixed-use project that includes the Pittman Hotel.
“There’s layers for different levels of engagement,” said Eaton, who considers public murals his most important works. “When you’re driving down the street and see it for three seconds, I want it to have a visual impact. But I want there to be a lot more there for people who spend the time and look into it.”
