The world is not black and white for artist Veronica Prida and her husband, Omar Rodriguez, also an artist. Vibrant with the colors of Mexican folk art, nature and personal exuberance, their Alamo Heights home displays the couple’s love of art, textiles and living. It’s like a constant casa fiesta. Once you cross their threshold, you’ll never look at four walls the same way again.
It’s easy to see how these celebrated artists arrived at creating a home from a vivid palette. Veronica’s Prida Design Studio is home to her one-of-a-kind furniture designs reflecting her interest in the huipil, the indigenous dress of southern Mexico and Central America. Her clothing designs are worn by women all over the world. For six months of the year, she works at designing and embellishing the magnificent robes, gowns and crowns for Fiesta royalty, heading a team of seamstresses who produce the couture that helps make Fiesta famous.
Omar is a health care executive who never had formal art training. As a child, he never used any medium beyond a crayon or a marker, and then he picked up a paintbrush in the middle of life and became an overnight sensation. Collected internationally, his paintings are exhibited in private, corporate and academic collections. His portraiture was shown in the 2006 Ford and Smithsonian exhibition of Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
The couple discovered the home by accident 16 years ago. At that point, the house was on one level and had been made into a duplex with a chopped-up floor plan and two entrances. Working with an architect and a contractor, they gutted the home and then transformed the shell into a three-bedroom, two-bath home with an open floor plan suitable for their relaxed lifestyle. Interior walls and wooden floors are painted in the vibrant hues of Mexican folk art, and the eclectic furnishing are international in origin.
