
12The Six-Story Gift
βThe Giftβ β Brad Settles, 2021, on the Waco Hippodrome's stage wallMURAL
A TV network filmed its first-ever episode watching this wall get painted.
Six stories of windowless brick behind the Hippodrome theater, covered floor-to-sky in enormous overlapping leaves β deep teals and greens out of Cameron Park β tied at the bottom with a painted bow of twine. It's called The Gift, by Waco artist Brad Settles, and it is deliberately unsigned. His logic is hard to argue with: a gift doesn't need a name tag.
It's also a TV star. The making of this wall was the pilot episode of Magnolia Network's Public Artist β a camera crew followed Settles up the scaffolding for Chip and Joanna's network while he turned a parking-lot wall into the tallest painting on this trail. Which means you're standing where the establishing shot was filmed. From this same spot you can see Suarez's egg-beater Starry Night and walk thirty seconds to a genuine Blek le Rat. One parking lot. Three stories. Waco doesn't announce these things; it just leaves them out for whoever looks up.
Is this your wall?
This page is how people find this piece β and it has room for your name on it. If you own the building, made the art, or want to welcome visitors standing in front of it, we would love to put your story here too.
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