Artist Deandre Jones creates street murals for North Heights crosswalk art project

Growing up in the North Heights neighborhood of Amarillo near Bones Hooks Park, Deandre Jones never dreamed as a kid drawing Buzz Lightyear that he would be part of a large art project celebrating the community that he lives in.

The Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University graduate was tapped by the North Heights Advisory Association in conjunction with North Heights Plan to create art as part of the city’s Creative Crosswalk Project. Funding for the project came from the city’s Neighborhood Planning Initiative.

“My girlfriend Tori got a hold of me and told me about some people from the city that were doing a project looking for local artists with my name coming up, and I jumped at the chance,” he said.

Before this project, Jones's biggest project was artwork done for his alma mater WT.

“I was known for doing minimalist art pieces for people around the community and my family,” Jones said. “I have done watercolor and other portraits for people, but this is definitely my biggest project.”

Jones, now 27 years old, says that he has been doing art for as long as he can remember. He said a key moment in his life toward loving art was when his cousin pitted Jones against his brother to see who could draw the best. From that point on, Jones never put his pencil down again.

The first picture he drew he described as an abomination when he attempted to draw Buzz Lightyear from "Toy Story."

“My mom and dad always bought me art materials when I was a kid,” he said. “My dad always told me that since they had spent all this money, I needed to do something with my aspirations. I always wanted to be a comic book artist like Steve Ditko or Stan Lee. When I saw their work, I always wanted to be able to do something like that with my own talent.”

Jones said this inspired him to attend art school and finish college. One of his favorite artists, Kim Jung Gi, a Korean comic book artist who died just two years ago at 47, is a great inspiration for his work.

“His art is amazing; the way he could sit down and draw an entire character without even sketching anything down is true talent,” he said. “Seeing those artists in their field and seeing how respected they are for their dedication to their craft is just something I want to achieve in my life if I am able to.”

While he was excited about the crosswalk project when it was proposed, Jones said that he struggled with the graphic design aspect of art on this project.

“I thought it would be just as easy as art, but trying to know what people like and advertising it to people can be difficult,” Jones said. “I was nervous and having thoughts about, can I do this while making it look nice? Will this be something that the community will appreciate?”

Jones described the minimalist aspect of this art as breaking down a piece of art to its bare bones' primary elements.

“It doesn't have to be complex with so many clashing colors and subjects in the art; you can just have something just as simple as a word or a symbol to have it convey a meaningful message to those who view it,” he added.

With this project, Jones said that the city’s guidance for the creative crosswalks was to work with the established ideas and symbols like the Carver Dragon or the Bones Hooks Park Torch, while incorporating his ideas of what he would like to see. He said that he received valuable feedback from some people in the neighborhood.

With his art on display just blocks from his home, Jones said that he feels honored but weird in a way.

“You always tell yourself that you are going to do something big, but when you actually get to do something, I am not sure it hits you at that moment what it is,” he said. “Many people say this is a big opportunity, but it does not feel real to me yet."

Jones stressed that his family has been incredibly supportive of his art, but his dad took a little while to come around due to his belief in hard work and not initially seeing how art could become a career. With this project and his other work, Jones sees that his dad is starting to believe in his vision.

“My mom was always buying me all the art supplies; she would drive me to Hobby Lobby and sent me to summer art school,” he said. “I believe sometimes she believed in me more than I did. My dad believed in me when I got my first check. He saw how people were receptive to my art and pushed me to not just rest on my laurels.”

As he finished up on his crosswalk murals, Jones reflected on what he would like people to see in his street art.

“I would like this to make people think about the North Heights community as a whole,” he said. “I have a lot of great memories here, as well as a few bad ones. I do not want me to be the forefront of these specific pieces of art. I want people to remember my contributions, but I want to see the work that the North Heights community does and represents.”

The North Heights community is seen by many as having been ignored by the city since it came into existence, but Jones sees this project as a small positive step.

“The city of Amarillo is growing, and the more people that come here, the more venues will want to advertise that Amarillo is or can be a place for everybody,” he said. “I would like to be one of the people to make this happen. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on in the community."

Jones said he hopes to grow his social media following and that this project will help more people see his work. He also wants to do comic and video game art and set up a website where people can view and buy his art.

“I just want to stay humble and grow my confidence in my work for people to see,” Jones said. “Many times, you will tell yourself that maybe you cannot do things, but you will not know until you try. Self-doubt is one of the hardest things for an artist to deal with."

With this work, Jones wants to inspire students from the area and beyond to outdo him.

“I do not want them to just follow in my footsteps, but I want them to step beyond them and be better than me,” he said. “I want what I am doing to seem smaller than what they achieve. As Tupac said, I may not be the one, but hopefully, I can be the one to inspire them, and if I can do that, then I did a good job.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo artist Deandre Jones works on North Heights crosswalk project