Kelly Clarkson Interviews El Paso Artist At Uvalde TX Mural Site

Singer and talk show host Kelly Clarkson was spotted at the Downtown District of Uvalde interviewing Texas artists, including El Paso's own Tino Ortega, about the portrait mural project.

Created by Abel Ortiz, a professor at Southwest Texas Jr. College and Uvalde-based artist, and Monica Maldonado, director and founder of the Austin-based non-profit MAS Cultura, The Uvalde Healing Arts Mural Project launched a Fundraiser on GoFundMe to complete a series of 21 murals, memorializing each victim of the school shooting by Texas-based artists.

The mural portrait project included Texas-based artists and volunteers to participate in the art collaboration, including well-known El Paso muralist Tino Ortega known for his 3D Mylar balloon murals across town in memory of the August 3 victims.

The funds, which have since raised over $21K and counting, have been used to purchase books for children on grief, supplies, and lodging for the invited Texas artists, all volunteering their time and skill set for the cause.

For the last couple of months, Tino Ortega has been traveling from El Paso to Uvalde, Texas, painting two unique murals in honor of Jailah Nicole Silguero and Jose Flores Jr., two 10-year-old children killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting.

It turns out that while finishing his last mural, fellow Texan from Fort Worth, Kelly Clarkson, singer, and TV personality, dropped in to interview the Texas artists for her daytime talk show.

El Pasoans can tune in to watch the segment during the new season (4) of The Kelly Clarkson Show, beginning with episode 1 on September 12, 2022.

Ortega also shared on social media how grateful he was to be part of the art collaboration, saying:

Glad to be here in Uvalde doing these portraits. I've always believed in giving back with the gifts that we are given. Thank you so much for the opportunity @m.a.s.cultura.

El Pasoans who would like to visit the memorial murals site will find them located in a 5 to 6-block radius across several buildings in the Downtown District in Uvalde, Texas.

The Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24, 2022, was the deadliest school shooting when a lone gunman opened fire and killed nineteen children and two adults in the Latino town of Uvalde in South Texas.