09/05/2026
You voted. 130 of 150. The bear.
On Wednesday we put four walls in a square and asked Waco to defend one. A hundred and fifty of you cast a vote (a few more just tagged a friend), and when we counted it wasn't close: 130 went to the same number — the bear on the ALICO, on the side of Infamous Ink out on Speight Avenue.
Somebody who works in the ALICO said the building has stood the test of time for a reason. The bear is just getting started. Somebody else summed it up in two words: most Waco.
Thank you to everyone who stood up for the other three — The Gift behind the Hippodrome (Brad Settles), Starry Night at Union Hall (Will Suarez), and the J***y Monkey queen on La Salle (Becky Kindred).
About the winner. The mural was created by Jason Patterson of Patterson Designs for Infamous Ink — and it’s hard to imagine a piece better suited for this particular corner of Waco.
Around the side of Waco's oldest tattoo shop, a grizzly the size of King Kong scales the ALICO while helicopters swarm and a purple biplane banks in — and if that seems far-fetched, the real ALICO has stood since 1911 and shrugged off the 1953 tornado. It can handle one bear.
Look closer near the corner: a bee carrying a honey pot the way other people carry a gr***de. Do not startle the bee.
1813 Speight Ave, South Waco — and park once: the Wall of Georges is one lot over.
The bear is the champion now, and a champion has to defend the belt. Round 2 drops Thursday at noon — three of the walls you wrote in, plus one more — and the winner gets the bear in the Final.
Follow Art Waco TX so Round 2 finds you Thursday.
Did the right wall win? Yes or no.
