Hatziel Flores was one of the many artists selected to bring Deep Ellum’s history to life during the first phase of the recently completed Blues Alley project, but his roots in the Deep Ellum art scene go incredibly deep.
Born in Mexico City, Hatziel’s family moved and settled in Dallas while he was still very young. During his adolescence, his artistic sensibilities were constantly being piqued by comic books, cartoons, and paints, but it took the support of those who saw his abilities to take the leap to art as more than a hobby. In middle school, Hatziel’s art teacher took immediate notice of his skills via his art projects and primarily the doodles and drawings that covered his notebooks and materials. With the mentorship and support of both his teacher as well as his mom, Hatziel began to deepen his education and passion for the arts.
As his fine arts training developed, Hatziel could not help but notice the graffiti and street art movement taking place in Deep Ellum. Legendary artists and crews like Minus Won and IC molded his idea of what fine art was and how it could be communicated through graffiti. During high school, Hatziel’s friends begin to head to Deep Ellum almost every day to paint in the old Ace Parking Lot and the Good Latimer Tunnel. These locations became their workshop and training grounds as Deep Ellum was one of the few places in the city accommodating street artists and not viewing graffiti as taboo. Throughout all of his practice, Hatziel began to hone his skills and learn from the artists around him.
As he grew older, Hatziel began to find opportunities for his fine art but couldn’t help the draw he felt from graffiti. As murals started covering Deep Ellum and other districts in Dallas, Hatziel realized he could translate the fine arts he had been practicing into paid gigs muraling which was the ideal collision of his skills and passions. Today, Hatziel continues to help Dallas artists foster graffiti and street art into the mainstream while consistently making his mark across the city. You can find his work all over Deep Ellum, in galleries and on walls including, most recently, his sprawling work on Blues Alley!
Learn more about Hatziel and see collections of his work by visiting his website and Instagram page.
