ST. LOUIS — Two artists have come together to make the Old North Neighborhood better with their paintbrushes. One woman born in Columbia, Luisa Otero-Prada, 59, found a world of artistry in her own backyard after she came to America to help her disabled son receive a proper diagnosis. The other, a St. Louis native, Andrea Hughes, 65, decided to raise her family in the community that once raised her and found pleasure in bringing new hues to the same old canvas.
"While we're doing our murals there is a lot of time to talk," Otero- Prada, said right before the pair burst into laughter.
The two are fashioning an even deeper bond as the brush moves and the paint dries on each mural.
Otero-Prada and Hughes first met to create a mural titled "We are the flowers of one garden," in 2017. The mural can still be seen today on Montgomery Street outside of Zuka Art Guild - 14th Street Artist Community.
"If we both work on it together, she does stuff that I can't do and I do stuff that she doesn't want to do so it sort of works," Hughes said.
The pair have completed nearly a dozen projects around town together to make their neighborhood even better.
"We research whatever we're doing and it just became fun," Hughes said about their dynamic.
Most recently Hughes and Otero-Prada have partnered with the Peter and Paul Community Services in North St. Louis to create a better dining space for people in a transitional housing community collabARTive program.
They are filling in a blank wall inside of Garfield Commons dining room that has needed painting for many years, co-founder and managing artist of the community collabARTive Con Christeson said.
They aim to evoke a sense of home for those who were once homeless.
First, the pair spent the last six months learning about the people who occupy the space with three different workshops once a week. Then they formulated a vision board that consisted of Kintsugi, a Japanese art form that involves rebuilding broken pieces and gluing them back together.
"The journey to put things together, it can be beautiful too," Otero-Prada said about the people in transition.
We love anything that is community-orientated," Otera-Prada said.
While the world was forced to social distance in 2020, Paulette Sankofa, an advocate for seniors within the Old North Restoration Group, desired togetherness for residents. Again Hughes and Otera-Prada showed up to work with Sankofa to bring art to seniors by becoming their art teachers via Zoom.
The pair partnered with Sankofa again to paint over a dozen doors in Old North on behalf of P.E.A.C.E Weaving Wholeness.
Hummingbirds in Old North St. Louis
If you see hummingbirds on artwork in St. Louis it may be the work of Otero-Prada and Hughes.
The hummingbirds are Hughes and Otero-Prada's signature. Hughes became enamored by the many hummingbirds at Otero-Prada's home surrounding the feeders, which explains the largest-scale hummingbird they've created to date at Peter and Paul Community Services.
"The hummingbirds would land on her husband's finger and head. It was just a beautiful sight," Hughes recalls.
For them, the hummingbird represents hope, healing, and love.
Although they come from different places, they have the same goal. The pair swap ideas, parenting hacks, and music from their cultures.
"I always had a social mission," Otero-Prada said. "The important thing is that we learn to save humanity before anything else."
Luisa wants more children to keep the notebooks they doodle in. "Before you write you draw, drawing is the language of the children," she said.
Hughes recalled a 70-year-old woman who learned that she was an artist after taking one of her workshop classes.
"She was really good. She became really prolific in her art," Hughes said. " What I'm trying to say is she was an artist who discovered it at 75. So no matter what age you are just look into it. Some people say I can only draw a stick. Well go ahead and draw that stick. ... Art has so many branches."
Take a tour of some of the art Hughes and Otero- Prada by visiting Zuka Arts Guild or contacting the artists directly at 314-320-3166.