SAN ANTONIO – A beloved artist known for painting elaborate portraits that honor San Antonio’s culture is being remembered by the community he impacted after he abruptly died on Jan. 22, 2025.
Rudy Almanza, 46, was known as SLVR to everyone he crossed paths with. He was featured in 2020 on “What’s Up South Texas!”
“When he was 17, his hair started turning gray,” laughed his mother, Olga Almanza-Marquez.
SLVR went through ups and downs in life, but in the end, the man he turned out to be made others around him respect and look up to him.
“He just loved people,” Almanza-Marquez said. “He would say, ‘I love everyone. I do so through my art.’ Everyone has a painting of his somewhere.”
For years, SLVR would paint live in bars around the city. He would paint anything from Spurs players to families to Day of the Dead symbolism.
“His artwork is found in businesses, bars, and homes,” Almanza-Marquez said. “The last painting he did for me took him about five hours. It is so beautiful hanging up in my home. It is a wedding portrait.”
SLVR brought much joy to the community, not only through his art but through his humorous, joyful, spontaneous personality. Almanza-Marquez said she will miss that the most.
“I will miss it when he would call me every night,” she said as she began to weep. “He would call me late at night and we would talk for hours and laugh.”
Abruptly, SLVR passed away from what the family believes were natural causes.
“When I got the call, I just cried and cried,” SLVR’s mother said. “The next day, when I got up, I saw him sitting at the end of the bed and I said, ‘Rudy! Is that you?’ I thought I was hallucinating. But I know God gave me that vision for a reason. He told me he has my son.”
She said it is still hard to accept.
“It just hurts,” Almanza-Marquez said. “I feel like there is a knife in my heart and I can’t take it out. But I will say I know he is not here but I can still see him painting.”
She said the last time they saw each other was at a family member’s party.
“He kissed me, and he said, ‘I just want you to be proud of me.’ I told him, ‘Rudy, I am proud of you!’ I am so proud. He was a great father. He was a great son. He was perfect to me,” Almanza-Marquez said.
Community members are gathering Feb. 16, Sunday afternoon, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Burleson Yard. The family is asking everyone who has a painting from SLVR to come and share with the community for all to see the beauty in his work.
Forty easels will be set up for the mass display. The venue will be kid-friendly, and there will be DJs participating.
“If I can say one more thing to my son today,” Almanza-Marquez said through tears, “I would tell him that I love him. I miss him. I would say, ‘Rudy, you weren’t supposed to go before Mama.’ I would say, ‘SLVR, you will always be in my heart, my thoughts, and I love you.’ I do hope someone comes along and paints like him and sees his work and says, ‘If Rudy can do this, I can do this too.’”
