SAN ANTONIO – Near the corner of San Pedro and Cypress streets, a local bar has gotten a little facelift and a lot of attention thanks to a mural of artists including Soulja Boy, 21 Savage and Cardi B. Artist Colton Valentine brought the three hip-hop rappers to life through aerosol cans and his skill set.
"The owners of Supreme Sports Bar told me I can use this wall to practice," said Valentine. "I figured I'm really going to take advantage of that and push myself."
His most recent work of art is plastered on a pink bubble gum-colored background.
"It took three days of painting and a couple days of really figuring out some details of the painting itself on the wall," said Valentine.
The painting of Cardi B, he said, is a photo-realism style with a touch of comic book.
"This facial expression you can't just say, 'Okurt,'" joked Valentine. "Okurt" is one of the Grammy Award-winning artist's coined phrases.
This mural features another one of Cardi B's sound effects in accordance with how Valentine portrayed her. "I went with 'eoww.'-" laughed Valentine.
It used to be a plain wall facing the Exxon gas station. A trip to the gas station has now become the perfect backdrop for those on Instagram.
Valentine is surprised at the outpour of support. Shaking his head in disbelief, Valentine shared that he's witnessed people from "all walks of all life dress up and come out here to take a picture."
Although the art has been shared through numerous posts across social media platforms, Valentine said it hasn't been completely positive.
"People are a little upset that I would paint someone like Cardi B instead of Selena or someome that is a greater role model, but I'm literally just painting this for fun," said Valentine.
He said a woman threatened to start a petition to paint over the image of the former adult entertainment star because of alleged glorification.
"I'm not glorifying anyone. I'm just painting someone's face a little bit bigger than normal on a wall," said Valentine.
Controversial or not, Valentine insists the murals are to showcase his skill set and paint something that's trending. "I'm not going to shy away from standing up for myself and painting whatever I want," added the artist.
You can snap a picture with Valentine's murals which are located at 820 San Pedro Ave. You can find more of Valentine's work on his social media accounts.