Monday, January 20

Cal’s Colorful Journey

Big art, tall tales & small-town revival

By Robin Saylor

Calina Mishay’s life is a bit like the murals she’s painting across rural Texas—imperfect, raw and chaotic but also colorful, joyful and brimming with optimism.

Armed with cans of spray paint, brushes and a trailer full of supplies, Mishay—whose friends call her Cal—has crisscrossed the Lone Star State forming relationships in small towns while leaving her mark quite literally on walls, buildings and hearts.

Her artistic journey is at the center of “Cal’s Hometown Revival,” a TV series on Discovery’s Destination America that showcases not just her murals, but the characters and stories she encounters along the way. As Mishay transforms brick and stone into vibrant works of art, she watches connections flourish and a renewed sense of pride take root within the communities she touches. In its debut season, the show highlighted the towns of Coleman, Brady, Waxahachie, Angleton and Post, with a second season already in the works.

Growing up in Rule, a town of barely 600 in Haskell County, Mishay never imagined she would one day make a living as a professional artist. “I was a barefoot kid, climbing trees, exploring all day, creating weird little things with sticks,” she says. “I loved nature and being outside. I had my animals. I lived in my own world—really a free spirit more than anything.”

Her free spirit would later serve her well, but her teen years were filled with challenges. Mishay’s sister suffered from a genetic degenerative disorder that eventually confined her to a wheelchair. As her sister’s condition worsened, Mishay found herself stepping into increasing responsibilities, while navigating her own teenage struggles. “I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders,” she recalls. During that time, her parents’ marriage crumbled, creating emotional turmoil at home.

Left Cal in progress painting the mural in Eden Right One of Cal’s “smaller” murals for the Parker County Peach Festival

Though she started painting at age 4, she never thought of herself as an artist until the day her grandmother took one of her paintings, had it professionally framed, and hung it above her bed where it still hangs today. “She had the insight back then to see I had a creative mind,” Mishay recalls. “She told me, ‘You’re going to be such an artist.’ ” Her grandmother’s belief in her helped shape Mishay’s path.

After high school, Mishay enrolled in the art program at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, the first person in her family to attend college. The transition wasn’t easy. At Tech, she felt lost, struggling to find her artistic voice. “I couldn’t find my grasp on life,” she says. “I was partying, but it wasn’t in the same sense everybody else was—I was sad, you know, and I was trying to fill that void.”

Her turning point came in an abstract painting class when her professor challenged her to stop overthinking and to let the painting “paint itself.” Though she didn’t fully understand the concept at the time, it would later define her work.

Before she could fully explore that idea, however, life threw her another curve. She became pregnant during her sophomore year and dropped out of art school, switching to an online general studies program she could complete as a stay-at-home mom. She entered a difficult marriage, followed by the birth of a second daughter. “Everything was kind of falling apart in my life,” she recalls.

With her marriage in tatters and her world once again turned upside down, Mishay moved to Abilene and returned to painting on canvas – this time as an emotional release. “When I started painting again, it was so raw. I painted with my hands, crying. It was a dark cloud raining black,” she remembers. Yet out of that darkness, her signature style began to emerge —vibrant, chaotic and hauntingly captivating.

“My style is expressionist—pure emotion, color, mistakes, everything just to feel it all,” Mishay says. “In the beginning, I would keep the parts I liked and keep working on parts I didn’t like, until it was something I could be proud of.” Her vibrant, layered art became a metaphor for her life. “Some things in life are happy and some are not,” she says. “But if we keep choosing brighter colors and adding layers you can feel us in it, you can see us in it. It’s imperfect, but it can still be beautiful.”

Her canvas work began to sell, providing not only financial support but also validation of her unique vision. “Every sale felt like a small victory,” she says. Yet art remained a side passion as she pursued a career as a board-certified behavior analyst for children with autism. Despite earning a master’s degree and thriving in her career, Mishay found herself unfulfilled. “I was doing everything people said should make me happy, but it wasn’t for me,” she says.

Don't
Miss

Watch “Cal’s Hometown Revival” on Destination America

Subscribe to her YouTube channel at youtube.com/@CalsHometownRevival

Season 1 featured communities
Coleman
colemancountytexas.com

Brady
visitbrady.com

Waxahachie
waxahachiecvb.com

Angleton
angleton.tx.us/287/Tourism

Post
postcitytexas.com

In 2015, she took a break between jobs and decided to take a leap of faith. Inspired by street art in large urban areas, Mishay thought, “Why not murals in small towns?” She pitched the idea to officials in Haskell, just 10 miles up the road from her hometown of Rule, offering to paint a mural in exchange for paint. The town agreed, and Mishay knew this was her moment.

Her first mural was a tribute to 92-year-old Haskell farmer R.V. Earles, depicting his weathered fingers and knuckles in the foreground cradling a handful of soil with the words “Deep Roots.” It resonated deeply with the community, sparking a series of projects across rural Texas. Her later murals feature a variety of subjects each tailored to their setting – from whimsical storybook characters on a library in Coleman to giant barrel cactuses and a profusion of flowers on a building in downtown Post.

From longhorns to cowboy boots and butterflies to bluebonnets, she strives with every mural to create something that represents the local spirit. She collaborates with residents, gathering ideas and input before each project, and welcomes advice and a brush stroke or two from passersby when the painting is underway.

Along her journey, she looks for interesting places to explore, whether it’s a historic theater, a guest ranch or a restaurant or oddity shop in a centuries-old building that’s been restored. “So many of these towns have such cool stories and interesting people scattered throughout their history,” Mishay says. “I’m excited my art can be the catalyst that gets to show you what they have to offer.”

While her artwork is at the core of “Cal’s Hometown Revival,” the show’s action focuses on her interactions with residents and her quirky, unpredictable adventures while getting to know them. She shoots a Civil War-era cannon, two-steps in a historic dance hall, learns to drive a race car and stands toe to toe with a two-time PBR World Champion bull.

Mishay’s laughter on camera is contagious and her enthusiasm for small-town America is genuine. Remaining true to her roots and her authenticity are priorities. “I don’t care about being the best artist,” she says. “I just want to express myself, love, create, laugh and adventure.”

Many of her experiences take her out of her element. In Coleman, she’s a passenger in a vintage airplane with no windows or doors. “I get extreme motion sickness and I also have a fear of tiny aircraft,” she says. “I didn’t want to do this, but my production team loves it when something makes me uncomfortable. They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s going to make for great TV.’ And it was worth it. We got to meet this character who fixes World War II airplanes, who’s just the coolest dude.”

While visiting Brady, she ventures into an underground cave on a nearby ranch. “I shined my light, and there were crickets and spiders all over the walls—it was like ‘Indiana Jones,’ ” she says, laughing and grimacing at the same time. While feeding crocodiles at a reptile farm near Angleton, the owner tells her to use a 5-gallon bucket as a barrier, “but if more than one come out of the water at a time, you should probably run,” he quips.

She takes the unsettling moments in stride. “In the end, it’s about the people and the crazy experiences, and just living your life and feeling good,” she says. “I want people to feel like we’re friends, we’re family, we’re in this together, and we’re just going on an adventure.”

Her encounters often lead to friendships that endure long after her projects are complete. “I have families in these towns who consider me part of their lives now,” she says. “I have Thanksgiving and Christmas with these people. I have rooms in some of their houses where I’m always welcome to stay.”

Ultimately, she hopes “Cal’s Hometown Revival” will bring a renewed spirit—and visitors—to the rural communities where her larger-than-life paintings now have their place in the limelight. Some are already seeing its impact. “Cal has brought an incredible charisma to Post,” says city manager J. Rhett Parker. “Through her work and encouragement, our city has rediscovered its unique identity, celebrating our rich western heritage and cowboy culture. We’re reminded to take pride in where we come from, honoring the distinct character that makes our town one-of-a-kind.”

Likewise, Kim Little, director of economic development for Coleman, has witnessed welcome exposure and an increase in traffic for the multiple locations of Mishay’s street art there, including a painting in an alleyway that became the cover for country music artist Aaron Watson’s 2017 “Vaquero” album. “I’ve taken pictures of people who are passing through and just want a family photo,” Little says. “The economic impact is hard to measure, but there are families that try to hit each town with Cal’s artwork so they can check those locations off a bucket list of things to do.”

Feedback on the show itself has been overwhelmingly positive, says Mishay. “Everybody has absolutely loved it, and they just feel like it really represents small-town America. They love the fact that it’s wholesome and it’s good, and they can laugh with me and just feel positive watching it.”

She hopes her story will inspire rural residents to be proud of who they are. “You don’t have to be what you see on social media or Hollywood or whatever they’re trying to sell to you this week. You can just be you, exactly where you are, and it’s 100 percent enough.”