A pair of books about San Antonio may inspire residents to view their Alamo City in new ways.
The two distinct takes on the community are a coloring book and a maze book, published by artists Charles Harrison Pompa and Maureen Momo Brown.
“We have published several coloring books in the past, and both of us are contemporary artists,” Brown said. “We highlight a lot of the local historic landmarks with our rich, authentic heritage in San Antonio. The five San Antonio Missions, the World Heritage site, our world class museums and then some of the attractions.”
The project started with Momo’s coloring book on the city’s landmark buildings. Pompa’s long-held fascination inspired his own creativity, eventually producing the maze book.
“I’ve always been amused with mazes, activity books and stuff like that. So I started the process of making a maze out of the structures of San Antonio,” Pompa said.
He’s prepared a familiar challenge for his readers.
“They enter, let’s suppose through the Alamo grounds and they find their way out and then they go to the next landmark, which would be Mission Concepcion,” Pompa explained.
courtesy the artist
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The Amazing San Antonio Landmarks Coloring Book
And so on, through 60 different landmark buildings. They aren’t photorealistic representations, but artistically interpreted cartoonish images. And Pompa said readers won’t just see all buildings.
“We have some legendary characters of San Antonio. We’re talking about like the Chupacabra, La Llorona, the Donkey Lady,” he said.
Momo said their take on the city’s landmarks is rooted in love and whimsy.
courtesy the artist
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Mission Espada maze
“We try to try to reach the masses in a fun ways,” she said. “We love highlighting San Antonio’s heritage, but with our contemporary art. It’s crazy, whimsical, fun.”
The books are titled The Amazing San Antonio Landmarks Coloring Book and The Amazing San Antonio Landmarks Maze Book.
“We self-published on lulu.com, but it’s available on Google, Barnes and Noble and some other sites as well,” Momo said.
The authors think the character of the city is closely related to the landmarks it’s fought to preserve.