Leo Rivera left the Rio Grande Valley to get his art training and education at a Denver-area design school.

It was in Colorado where the Harlingen native did his first large-scale wall mural. Rivera was active in the Denver arts scene for 11 years after graduating from the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design. Returning home in 2020, Rivera set off to work as what he calls an “artist for hire.” Murals for area businesses and cities became his bread and butter. 

He has done mural work for restaurants, barber and tire shops, fitness gyms and a variety of other businesses across the Rio Grande Valley. In downtown Harlingen, there’s what he calls his “blue lady” mural which draws upon his interests in pop culture and striving to give the region diversity beyond border-type art. A Harlingen restaurant – La Playa – features splashy tropical colors on its exterior walls that is an example of Rivera’s work. 

It may not be his personal preference in style and taste, but he understands the requests of clients comes first and from there it’s a matter of collaboration.

“There’s always some back and forth in trying to find the right concept,” Rivera said of working with his clients. “At the end of the day, you want them to like what’s going to be on their space. You work to get to some common ground.”

Art To Reflect A City

Rivera looks up at a 20-foot-tall mural in downtown Mercedes and it’s unlike anything he has done before.

The mural is bold and striking with a cowboy Western theme of two vaqueros riding hard with dust flying and lassos over their heads in pursuit of a black bull on the run. Rivera’s goal was to create something that “would be epic.”  The big picture goal was to create a mural that reflects the Mid-Valley community’s history of agriculture and its signature livestock show event.

“This is my first time painting cowboys and horses,” he said. “It was super fun and interesting. I think it’s fitting for the culture of the city.”

How he came to the imagery on a stucco wall in Mercedes demonstrates how Rivera works in translating an idea into actual art. The subjects for his murals come from photographs and images he references from various sources. Rivera draws upon those reference materials to come up with first drafts for clients based on their wishes and preferences. With the right images selected, he often collages them into a digital sketch that draws upon the elements Rivera believes best fit what a client is looking for in a project.

Rivera concedes that he “fumbled the first sketch” he presented to Mercedes city leaders. It usually takes multiple drafts to arrive at what a client wants, he said. Rivera took what he liked best from reference photos and changed some of the colors “to make it my own.” His mural work mostly consists of spray paint art with key background colors done by brush. A sealing coat is done by hand as Rivera seeks to protect his outdoor art from the elements of weather.

“The theme was fiesta,” he said in finishing up the Mercedes mural during Thanksgiving week. “We all know the livestock show is what Mercedes is known for. We fleshed out the idea to get something that represents the city.”

‘Be That Guy’

Rivera has an undergraduate degree in studio fine art painting and is an aficionado of art history and European artists.

He does enjoy personal fine art and gallery work. It is mural work, however, where he is mostly earning his living as an artist. Rivera has two more murals in Mercedes on tap in the coming months and hopes to parlay those projects into doing similar work for other area communities. His hometown of Harlingen is an example of a city that features murals throughout its downtown areas, with some of them done by a local artist making his mark.

The artwork he is doing in Mercedes adds to an already impressive portfolio.

“I want to be that guy to do more work for cities in the Valley,” he said.