In 1929 he embarked on a lengthy journey around Mexico, visiting the villages and absorbing native art and craft techniques. He returned to the U.S. in 1931 and three years later he and several other San Antonio artists opened La Villita Gallery.

Medellin went on to become a prolific and successful artist with works exhibited throughout Texas and the United States, including the New York’s 1939 World’s Fair and the MoMA.

Over the next thirty years, Medellin practiced and taught at a succession of prestigious Texas venues, including three years at the Witte Museum of Art and at La Villita, five years as a sculptor-in-residence at North Texas State College (now UNT), four years teaching art students from Southern Methodist University and 21 years teaching sculpture and ceramics at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts when it was in Fair Park.

In 1964 Medellin moved to a studio at Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California and in 1966 was lured back to Texas by a group of artists to form the Medellin School of Sculpture at famed western artist Frank Reaugh’s former studio, El Sibil, where he taught all levels of students in numerous different media. The Medellin School of Sculpture was incorporated under the name of the Creative Arts Center of Dallas which operates today on a two-acre campus in East Dallas.

Inspired by the art of the Mayan and Toltec indigenous cultures of Mexico as well as American Modernism, Medellin influenced a great number of artists including Tomás Bustos, Gladys Gostin, Sherri King, Marty Ray, and others. Although Medellin passed away in Bandera Texas in 1999, his art and legacy are very much alive.