Meet the artist behind the mural on the new 6th Street concrete barriers

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Concrete barriers went up along Sixth Street recently, as part of the Austin Police Department’s efforts to prevent late-night crowds from gathering in the street or outside businesses since opening the road back up to cars over the weekends.

These replaced the water-filled barriers that were up for about four months, and are now the third type of infrastructure the city has used since the street opened up to car traffic full-time in January.

“After installing water-filled barriers on Sixth Street, we heard from business owners that the area felt too much like a construction site, so the City opted to make the switch to concrete barriers,” the city previously told KXAN in an email statement.

The barriers were painted by local artist Emily Eisenhart. She said she applied to an open Request for Proposal and was chosen to paint the barricades as part of a beautification effort by the Downtown Austin Alliance and the East Sixth Street Public Improvement District.

“They chose my work, I think, for its abstract nature and storytelling capacity,” Eisenhart said. “I’m always inspired. I actually studied anthropology, so I’m a researcher by training, and I always walk the site and talk to people, and so, a lot of the shapes and motifs that you see here are honoring the history of this area, the musical influences, all the different businesses.”

“You’ll see architectural elements like archways or circles like faces, like suns, moons, guitar strings or silhouettes of musical instruments, even little dots that look like the windows on buildings,” Eisenhart added.

Eisenhart said she’s honored to have been selected and to be part of downtown Austin through her art, and she’s grateful that city entities care about creativity and cultural efforts that make Austin “even more dynamic.”

“What I love about art in the public realm is that people can come up against it and take photographs. They can see it from afar and see a new motif. It can greet them in the daylight or the nightlife, depending on when they’re here. And yeah, it tells the story of Austin in many different ways, all the layers and patterns,” she said, also noting the abstractness of the art allows it to be up for interpretation for each person seeing it.

Eisenhart has been running her own studio in Austin for 10 years, and she said she often partners with developers, architects and community organizations to bring artwork to the urban realm.

She explained the inspiration behind some of the elements in the mural.

“All the colors in this mural, to me, speak to Austin,” Eisenhart said. “We have greenery for all of our plant life and live oak trees, the cream of the limestone that’s all around you, the red of the brick — that’s all the patios and markings here. The yellow, to me, is like the warm sun. And there’s, of course, that blue teal of Barton Springs and our big Texas sky.”

Eisenhart said the artwork was sealed off with an anti-graffiti sealant to help extend its longevity.

Brianna Hollis contributed to this story.

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