Larger Than Life

“With this new production of il trovatore, we want to emphasize that the great operas are about and for us—and that is why we want to feature a homegrown-Houston artwork on the Brown stage.” —Khori Dastoor 

“When I look back on my life, I realize, it was right there in front of me,” says 26-year-old Floyd Mendoza, reflecting on his path to becoming a full-time working artist with a dozen commissioned murals around Houston, working with institutions including the Houston Rockets, Rice University, and—now—Houston Grand Opera. 

Growing up south of Houston in Pasadena, Mendoza expected to one day work in the refineries. But he was always drawing. It was in his blood. Both Mendoza’s father and grandfather—an electrician and a welder, respectively—were also artists: his grandfather would teach him to draw animals, and his dad was a graffiti artist.  

“My father would always draw our names in graffiti. It was pretty neat, but he would tell me, don’t do it, I got in trouble, it’s bad, it’s illegal. But if not for those graffiti artists like him back in the day, artists like me would not be getting commissions.”  

After high school, Mendoza did work at the refineries for a time, as well as in railroad construction, while continuing to make his art. He painted his first mural on his uncle’s garage. Then the pandemic hit, he was laid off, and he started painting canvases and selling them. “This was my last option,” he remembers. “If it didn’t work, I didn’t know what else I would do.”  

Today Mendoza is grateful he was laid off: his career as an artist has taken off, and he’s busy selling pieces and working on large-scale commissions while making new friends across the city. This summer, he answered HGO’s call for entries to have his work featured at the Wortham Theater Center, as part of the set for the company’s new production of Il trovatore, and was thrilled to be selected to create an original piece for the show.  

Look for Mendoza’s collaged mural, which incorporates text with an image of Raehann Bryce-Davis as Azucena, in Act II, Scene 2!  And look for Mendoza himself in the theater—he’s bringing his wife Desiree with him to see his first opera, and he can’t wait. “This is a big new experience for me,” he says. “I’m excited.”