ARTIST: BRANDON ANSCHULTZ

Brandon Anschultz is an artist whose work explores craft at the intersection of painting, sculpture, and installation. His art dives into themes of queer identity, truth, rage, and personal narrative, often camouflaging and highlighting these concepts. He creates thematic bodies of work that delve deeper into specific ideas. The use of color and material exploration is central to his artistic practice. Brandon received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from Louisiana Tech University in 1997 and an MFA focusing on Printmaking and Drawing from Washington University in St. Louis in 2002, and has exhibited widely in St. Louis and throughout the country.

Anschultz has lived in the Shaw Neighborhood for over twenty years and takes great pride in his community. Like many St. Louisans, his daily experience of his neighborhood involves walking his dog, Duncan (and his predecessor, Leto). It is one of the reasons he cherishes living in Shaw.

The mural created on the Klemm Street side of Shaw’s Market is vibrantly colorful. It features silhouette drawings of dogs, a few cats, and elements from the neighborhood, highlighting some features, infrastructure, and history. These elements include native trees, a view of the Compton Hill Water Tower, the silhouette of a piece of animal pottery from the Mississippian culture, a fire hydrant and mailbox, and other details from homes and buildings he loves to walk by. He also incorporated some personal symbols and images requested by the building’s owner to reflect the owners long connection to the neighborhood. 

The color palette was designed to be both pleasant and challenging. Instead of using colors directly associated with the natural world, he drew inspiration from the colors found in shadows, glimmers on windows, and the reflected light from homes in the area.