TLAHPIXQUI = GUARDIAN
2025 Street Wise Mural Festival
Location: South facing wall of KGNU Community Radio, 1720 14th St, Boulder, CO 80302
Photos by Jeff Goldberg and Yukai Tomsovic
A female warrior anchors the southwest corner of KGNU Community Radio’s new building, offering protection to this new community space. TLAHPIXQUI = GUARDIAN installed by Bimmer T and Ratha Sok during #SWMF2025 celebrates the surrounding neighborhood’s cultural diversity and resiliency.
The artists create this mural in a distinctly graffiti style, using bold, graphic lines to differentiate shapes, highlights, and shadows. Only a portion of the warrior appears visible, peering out at the viewer from the natural frame of the building. She wears a cobalt blue feathered headdress with interlocking bands of diamond patterns. Blue face paint adorns her cheeks and between her eyes. Sharp eyebrows with shaved slits frame her brown eyes, which also flicker blue. A small mole sits below her button nose. Wisps of her dark brown hair lead the eye to the teal graffiti lettering in the background.
The artist duo collaborated on the project by developing a shared concept and visual direction to create a cohesive composition that reflects both of their artistic approaches and allows their individual styles to shine through. Ratha took the lead on the patterns of the headdress and the background elements, while Bimmer focused on color theory as well as the warrior’s portrait and overall chromatic balance.
Bimmer and Ratha’s mural celebrates cultural pride, identity, and strength as powerful acts of resistance. Tlapixqui is a Nahuatl word meaning guardian, caretaker, or one who keeps watch, often used to refer to a revered elder or guardian of the home. Their mural honors the historic BIPOC communities of the neighborhood surrounding KGNU as well as their resilience, both past and present.
Now called Goss-Grove, this area formerly included The Little Rectangle, home to many Black residents of early Boulder. Despite the neighborhood’s location in a flood zone and discrimination often experienced, a strong Black community formed here with many owning homes, including musician John Wesley McVey and educator and lawyer Ruth Cave Flowers. By the 1960s, this area transitioned to housing the city’s Italian and Hispanic population.
Bimmer and Ratha found this project especially meaningful because it gave them the opportunity to celebrate this community’s history and emphasize the continued presence of these diverse cultures. Additionally, painting a mural for KGNU, a long-standing community voice in Boulder, made the project even more impactful for the artists.
About the Artists:
Bimmer Torres was born in Chihuahua, Mexico and raised in North Denver. He channels the Chicano murals and graffiti of his youth into large-scale works that mix sarape-inspired colors, hyper-realistic portraits, and cultural symbolism.
Ratha Sok is a first-generation Cambodian American born in Denver. He has over a decade of experience in murals and fine art. His work fuses graffiti roots, bold color, and storytelling to celebrate Cambodian heritage and the diverse voices of his community.