Mural Painter Reynaldo Hernandez Tells His Story

×

Expand

Photo by Tom Jenz

Reynaldo Hernandez (2026)

Reynaldo Hernandez (2026)

Mural paintings are some of the oldest art forms in world history. Think of the cave paintings from 50,000 years ago and the wall murals of ancient tombs. Think forward to the social and political statements painted on buildings and along alleys. Think about murals as an integral part of the civil rights movements.

Long before books were common, murals illustrated animal hunts, wars, gods, celebrations and everyday life. The Romans covered homes and public spaces with detailed wall paintings. Centuries later, during the Renaissance, artists like Michelangelo turned entire ceilings into masterpieces, most famously in the Sistine Chapel. These works were more than decoration. They were meant to teach and inspire.

In the 1900s, murals took on a bold role. After the Mexican Revolution, artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco painted huge public works that illustrated working people and social change. Their style influenced mural movements across the United States, especially in community spaces like San Diego’s Chicano Park, where art became a celebration of culture and a demand for justice. Today, murals are everywhere, from city centers to quiet neighborhoods. They blend street art, activism and personal expression. They turn blank walls into powerful messages that anyone can see for free.

Expand

Photo by Tom Jenz

Mural of Peace by Reynaldo Hernandez

Mural of Peace by Reynaldo Hernandez

Which brings me to acclaimed Milwaukee mural painter Reynaldo Hernandez. He created the Mural of Peace, the huge eagle and dove mural along I-94 near National Avenue. A Milwaukee native, Hernandez utilizes artistic talents in everything from painting to photography, airbrushing, fine art, caricatures and life drawing. He has illustrated children’s books and even worked as a courtroom sketch artist. Many of his murals are collaborative with community residents and youth creating pride, skill-building, confidence and story tales.

In addition to the many murals he has painted in Milwaukee, Hernandez is also responsible for the artistic revitalization of downtown Waukesha through his murals. On a national level, he has painted over 150 murals including those in different Wisconsin cities, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Whitewater, Fort Atkinson and Stevens Point. I met Hernandez in his studio on ML King Drive. 

Tell me about your life as a boy, your parents, neighborhoods, schools, and when you became interested in art.

My parents were one of the first minorities on the South Side that owned houses. I grew up in a house on 29th and Forest Home. My older brother, Ramon, was my mentor.  We hung out around the creeks and learned about butterflies, snakes and bugs. I went to Walker Junior High. It is still there. I designed the school’s mascot, the wildcat. I was doing art since I was little.

As a kid, did you just pick up a pencil and start drawing?

Yeah, I think so. To shut out the world and family arguments, I’d go in my room and draw things. Kind of an escape. My mother told me art was a God given talent and I shouldn’t waste it. My uncle, Willie Pickens, also encouraged me. He was a well-known jazz pianist in Chicago, played with some famous jazz musicians. 

What high school did you attend?

I went to Boys Tech because they had commercial art, and I took four years of art classes, photography and printing. Great school, all boys. I was the class of 1968. The ‘60s were great for me and great for art. The psychedelic hippie movement, Viet Nam, the civil rights era. Murals were an extension of the civil rights movement. Writing on walls and sidewalks. That era allowed me to educate myself. 

Did you have artists you admired back then?

My mentors were the city sign painters. Old guys. They did natural signage with brushes. It was a dying art. I watched them. They would talk to me and give me tips. Murals are in my blood, kind of like the Mexican muralists. Mexican is part of my heritage. In Central and South America, murals represented survival. They were about culture, revolution and workers. Back then, murals weren’t thought of as fine art like paintings hanging in museums and galleries. But murals are the oldest art form on earth. The tombs of Egyptians, the Romans, Native Americans drawings on their tipis.

I know. Go way back in history, and you can find cave walls covered with drawings of the primitive culture. So, when did you start painting murals?

(pointing at a framed photo of an art piece on a wall). I was a teen when I drew that one the night my older brother was having a party. I pulled down a window shade and made that picture of Sophia Loren’s face, her hair sweeping all the way across the window shade. I finished that in six hours using black and white house paint. That drawing was my inspiration, got me going.

What was your first big outdoor mural?

(pointing at a framed photo of a drawing of a woman with a headband) The mural on ML King Drive and Concordia where Bader Foundation is now located. I created that in the early 1980s. That’s when I was experimenting on brick and using shading. It’s about 20 some feet high. There was going to be a nightclub there, and that’s why you see the lady wearing a headband. Kids in the neighborhood called it “The Black Wonder Woman.” The Journal newspaper called it LaLaTina, so that became the name of the mural.

What is another big mural you painted?

Sixth and Oklahoma. An eagle with a Black kid and a white kid. You can educate people with mural art, break down cultural and racial barriers. 

After you graduated from Boys Tech, what did you do?

I got a job at WTMJ Television, Channel 4, on Capitol Drive.  I started in the news film department. Then, I moved into the art department and did all the on-air graphics. I also illustrated the ads for the newspaper. Then, they made me a courtroom sketch artist. I did that job for 12 years. But I also worked in the print shop and learned printing skills.

What did you do after you left WTMJ?

I went freelance. I was paid to do quite a few murals inside schools and libraries in cities all over Wisconsin. In this way, I supported my family, wife and six children. I taught my children about art and how to do murals. They learned about human anatomy, structure of muscles and bones.

And you never had formal training in the field of art, namely four-year colleges.

No, but I did study for a summer at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Later, professionals taught me how to airbrush and also how to draw caricatures. I still do that. I have an agent who connects me with clients.

How many murals have you painted in the Milwaukee area and the state of Wisconsin?

I’ve created easily over 150 murals. Probably 75 in Milwaukee.

What famous painters influenced you? Who did you admire? I’m thinking of Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, for instance.

Yes. I studied their art. The Mexican muralists with their perspectives and foreshortening, for example, the hands stretched out. But some of my influences were cartoonists and comic book artists like Mort Drucker of Mad Magazine. I liked his style. Another is Tom Richmond. I attended workshops to learn from the caricaturists and comic book artists. Artists learn from each other.

You are well known for your huge, beautiful murals. What are the skills an artist needs to paint a mural?

You have to learn the foundations, the basics. And you have to practice. As a kid, I learned to draw faces. You need to learn about color, blending, shading, mixing colors. And you need to learn scale if you are doing a large mural. You know, art is all around us, sky, earth, sunsets, clouds, 

Everything is visual, advertising, movies, TV, buildings, cars, houses, even the way we are dressed. 

I tell the kids, if you want to learn art, learn the subjects you don’t like in school, biology, anatomy, and including math because you have to divide the canvas or the wall. I tell kids to draw your own superhero, paint your own initials on your hero’s chest like Superman.

And you’ve done artwork in the Wisconsin Indian nations.

The Oneida nation. The Ashwaubenon. My mother always told me that no culture or no people are any better than the other. We should all learn from and respect each other. I try to show that in many of my murals.

That is the wonderful part of America, the ethnic variety.  Probably the most famous mural in the Milwaukee area is the eagle and dove mural on Sixth and National, hugely visible to cars heading north on Interstate 94. It stretches 80 by 150 feet, I believe. It was named The Mural of Peace and was painted on the International Building in 1999. How did that come about?

The mural was painted on 285 Masonite panels of 4x5 sheets, but I had to do it all over again because the wind blew off some of the panels in the year 2000. We had to take the whole mural down. The sign industry had come up with new kinds of materials that would last in bad weather. I used those materials for the second try. We put the mural together in a big space on the ground at a trucking company on Second and National. My kids and friends and some teachers helped. There are color bands on the end of the mural, representing the flags of the countries of the world.

When you are contracted to do a mural, who gives you the theme or idea?

The building owner or school principal will give you a vision, a sentence or a few words, and I take it from there and make the mural my vision. In the case of The Mural of Peace, Richard Oulahan, who ran the building, wanted me to show the diversity of the South Side of Milwaukee. I started with the South Side, expanded it to citywide, then nationwide and international. We all want prosperity, hope and peace. Thus, the title, The Mural of Peace. I painted a lightning bolt in the middle because while peace is an aspiration, there is always a hot spot in the world where there is conflict.

Who owns that old building now?

A company out of Oshkosh bought it from the city, but I own the copyright to the mural. Any alterations have to go by me. I did allow the installation of windows but with vinyl coverings. 

Start to finish, how long did it take to produce the mural?

Half the time was spent designing it to scale on paper. In total, probably six months.

Tell me about your big mural on the United Community Center, the Landmark Mural.

That mural showed the Hispanic culture, people and countries. It shows Milwaukee landmarks mixed with landmarks from Latin America countries. It features the Statue of Liberty holding bongo drums and maracas in her hands instead of the tablet and the torch. I thought that was kind of humorous. I show the Mayan and Aztec culture also. Their culture contributed a lot to history, for instance, the numbering system we use today.

What is your own ethnic background?

My mother is African American, and she could speak Spanish. Our family has Mexican ancestors from Vera Cruz. I guess I am a Black Mexican. But we are really all one world people if we trace back far enough.  

What is your next project?

I am helping my daughter, Rozalia, paint a mural on the new Marcia Coggs Health Center building on Cherry Street in Bronzeville. The theme has to do with health. And I will be doing a mural in my old Walker junior high school, now called Alba School. 

 Any other future plans for a new mural?

Yes, I want to be the first artist to do a mural on the moon.