Don Rimx on Cultural Identity, Community, and the Living Language of Public Art

Sep 11

7 min read

A mural can occupy a wall. In the hands of Don Rimx, it can also hold a community’s memory, create a meeting place between strangers, and carry culture from one generation to the next.

In Episode 6 of The Open Palette Podcast, host Brian Camacho sits down with the internationally recognized Puerto Rican artist for a bilingual conversation about identity, representation, and the responsibility that comes with creating work in public space.

Raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Don Rimx developed a practice that combines classical art training with the energy, repetition, and visual language of graffiti. His work has since traveled far beyond the island, but the foundation remains connected to the people, traditions, and experiences that shaped him.

This conversation is not simply about producing large-scale murals. It is about listening to communities, developing an honest artistic language, and understanding art as a living record of the time in which it was created.

WATCH THE FULL CONVERSATION

https://www.youtube.com/embed/S8RxcSNYDBQ?si=tMzzYQA8n7OR8iir

CARRYING CULTURE INTO THE WORK

Don Rimx’s connection to Puerto Rico is not presented as a reference added after the creative process. It is embedded in the way he approaches people, places, and visual storytelling.

During the episode, he discusses completing murals in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, including work on the town’s theater that honored the cultural tradition of the Máscaras de Hatillo. The project required more than arriving with a predetermined image. It required spending time in the town, speaking with residents, and learning what the tradition meant to the people who live there.

“Siempre que voy a pintar, la idea es poder conectar con la gente,” he explains.

Whenever he paints, the intention is to connect with the people.

That distinction is essential. Don Rimx does not enter a community believing he already understands its complete story. Even when working in Puerto Rico, he recognizes that every town carries its own history, relationships, and cultural language.

The artist arrives with experience, but he also arrives prepared to listen.

THE MURAL AS A MEETING PLACE

Public art is often evaluated by what remains after the artist leaves. Don Rimx pays equal attention to what happens while the work is being created.

People stop to observe. Conversations begin. Residents ask questions about the imagery, the materials, and the painting process. Some remain spectators, while others are invited to pick up a roller and participate.

Don Rimx explains that this community involvement was not originally a calculated program. It happened organically. People approached the mural because they were curious about what was taking shape in their neighborhood. That curiosity created an opening.

Someone who had never painted before could experience the process firsthand. Others could watch and learn without touching the wall. People who may never have spoken to one another could meet simply because they stopped in front of the same artwork.

“El arte hace un punto de referencia,” Don Rimx says.

Art creates a point of reference.

The mural becomes more than a finished composition. It becomes the reason people gather, exchange stories, and recognize one another. Those encounters can also influence the artist’s next project. Every conversation adds another piece of knowledge that can be carried into a different place.

BOMBA, MEMORY, AND SHARED ENERGY

The conversation also explores Don Rimx’s work honoring the cultural legacy of Bomba and the Cepeda family.

His relationship with the subject developed across several projects. An early mural introduced him personally to Jesús Cepeda, who visited the work, offered his blessing, and brought musicians to perform in front of it. What began as a painted tribute became a live cultural experience through music, rhythm, and community participation. A later project allowed Don Rimx to approach the subject with a deeper personal understanding. He was no longer painting solely from observation. He was creating from a relationship.

That evolution became especially meaningful in the Kissimmee mural created in connection with the city and the local Bomba community. Instead of presenting a single person as an isolated figure, the composition considered how cultural knowledge moves between elders, younger practitioners, families, and children. The mural represents culture as something shared. It is carried through rhythm, teaching, gathering, and repetition. It survives because people continue to practice it together.

For Don Rimx, that energy resembles the way artists find one another. Collaboration begins when people recognize a shared vibration and approach the work with intention. The resulting image can then communicate a feeling that extends beyond the individuals who created it.

BUILDING AN HONEST VISUAL LANGUAGE

A recognizable style is one of the clearest characteristics of Don Rimx’s work. His murals may respond to different places and subjects, but they retain a visual language that identifies the artist behind them. He connects that consistency to honesty.

An artistic language develops from what a person knows, what they have experienced, and how they have learned to interpret the world. Technique matters, but technique alone does not produce identity. The artist must understand which images, gestures, structures, and ideas genuinely belong to their way of speaking. Graffiti provided an important foundation for this understanding. Within graffiti, writers develop recognizable approaches to letters, movement, and form. Individual pieces change, but the hand and rhythm behind them remain identifiable.

Don Rimx carried that principle into figurative and public artwork. Instead of repeating the same letters, he developed recurring visual elements that allow different images to remain connected by the same voice.

“Parte del proceso de hacer arte es entenderse uno mismo,” he explains.

Part of making art is understanding yourself.

As that understanding grows, the language becomes more precise. The artist does not need to explain every decision or control every interpretation. The work creates curiosity, allowing viewers to recognize something familiar while encountering an idea presented in a new way.

EXPERIENCE KEEPS THE LANGUAGE MOVING

Consistency does not mean remaining unchanged.

Don Rimx describes artistic development as a continuous exchange between places. An artist learns something in one community, carries that experience into another, and discovers how the idea changes through a new set of conversations.

What begins in Puerto Rico may continue in Orlando, Kissimmee, New York, or another city. The artist does not have to restrict the work to the immediate location. An experience from one place may contain a message that needs to be discussed somewhere else.

This movement keeps the work from becoming disconnected from life. Travel introduces different histories, materials, environments, and people. Each project expands the artist’s understanding while testing whether their visual language can remain recognizable across changing conditions.

The goal is not to repeat the same solution everywhere. It is to remain honest enough that every new experience can enter the work without erasing its foundation.

ART AS DOCUMENTATION OF THE PRESENT

When asked what he wants his work to represent, Don Rimx offers one of the episode’s most important statements:

“Yo represento el tiempo en que estoy.”

I represent the time I am living in.

His work responds to what is happening now—what people are experiencing, what communities are protecting, and what conversations are unfolding around him. Over time, the present becomes history.

A mural created today may be understood differently ten years from now, but it still preserves the artist’s perspective at the moment of its creation. It records what someone saw, felt, and believed was important enough to place in public view.

This is where cultural representation becomes a responsibility. The artist is not merely decorating the surface of a building. They are participating in how a community, tradition, or period may later be remembered.

Don Rimx recognizes that viewers will bring their own interpretations to the work. That openness does not weaken the message. It allows the artwork to remain active, creating new conversations after the painting process is complete.

CREATING WITH INTENTION

Throughout the episode, Don Rimx returns to connection as both a method and an outcome.

He connects with a community before completing the image. Residents connect with one another while watching the process. Cultural traditions connect generations. Experiences from one location connect with conversations taking place somewhere else.

The work becomes timeless when people can find themselves inside it. This does not require every viewer to understand every symbol exactly as the artist intended. Meaning can begin with curiosity. A person sees something unfamiliar, asks why it was presented that way, and enters a conversation they may not otherwise have encountered.

That exchange is one of public art’s greatest possibilities.

A wall can become a gathering point. A portrait can preserve cultural memory. A mural can encourage someone to learn about a tradition, speak with a neighbor, or see their own community with renewed attention.

THE TAKEAWAY

Don Rimx demonstrates that a powerful visual language is not built through style alone. It grows from lived experience, cultural memory, repetition, relationships, and the willingness to listen.

His practice reminds artists that public work carries a particular responsibility. The community is not simply the audience waiting for the finished piece. It can become part of the creative process itself.

The strongest murals do more than fill space. They create a reason for people to stop. They allow histories to remain visible. They document the present while opening a conversation with the future.

For artists developing their own language, the lesson is equally clear: begin with what you know, remain open to what other people can teach you, and allow every meaningful experience to deepen the work.

ARTIST INFORMATION

Don Rimx is a Puerto Rican muralist and visual artist whose practice combines classical training, graffiti, figurative art, and large-scale public work. His murals explore cultural identity, community experience, and the relationship between people and their environments.

Follow Don Rimx on Instagram at @donrimx and explore more of his work at donrimx.com.