Restaurant owner commemorates 30th anniversary in Hillcrest by commissioning local artist Cody Griffith for large-scale mural; customers invited to participate

By Anthony King | SDUN Editor

Cecelia Moreno, owner of the Crest Cafe, is taking advantage of the building’s outdoor wall space by commissioning a mural in celebration of the restaurant’s coming anniversary. The artist, Cody Griffith, said the mural would be finished in time for this year’s Pride celebration, July 20 – 22.

“The mural will be a permanent art installation for the community, to commemorate our 30th year in business in Hillcrest,” Moreno said.

Griffith, who graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2010, is a San Diego native and said he submitted a portfolio and sketches to Moreno when the restaurant owner made a general call for submissions earlier this year.

“We did a couple sketches and talked about it,” Griffith said. “It represents not only the Cafe but also Hillcrest as a community.”

When finished, the mural will be of a large purple and pink circus elephant, walking through a colorful forested area. A blanket on the elephant’s back will be adorned with a painted replica of the recognizable Hillcrest sign.

“We wanted something iconic for the Cafe and the community,” Griffith said. “We wanted to go with whimsical colors, have a whimsical theme and play on the exaggeration of size.”

Griffith also called the concept “imaginative,” saying, “from far away you see a giant elephant but when you get closer to the Cafe itself, you get to take time and enjoy the delicacy of all the details.”

In his sketches, Griffith included fossils below a ground scene and left space to paint in several people dining at a table, an important aspect of the mural.

Moreno said they are holding a contest for Crest Cafe customers, with the winners being painted into the mural as the diners. Entry forms for the contest are available in the restaurant.

“The winner of the contest will be chosen at random from any customer who fills out an entry,” Moreno said. “They will be [near] the elephant’s tusk.”

Griffith will save painting the diners until the end, in order to get as many entries at the restaurant as possible, he said.

While he has been sketching the mural for months, Griffith said he has been working on the physical wall for only two weeks, adding that many residents have commented on how quickly the painting is being completed.

Griffith’s degree is in illustration and design, and while he said he has done some large-scale artwork in the past, it has been a challenge – and a blast – to translate his small illustrations to the large, outdoor canvas.

“It’s definitely been interesting, taking a millimeter brush stroke on the computer from the sketch [and] making it a four-foot brush stroke here,” he said. “It’s nice translating the textures [and] using spray paint, splatters and the dry brush to translate, textually, from the computer to the wall.”

Also accomplished in caricatures, Griffith designed a new children’s menu for the restaurant, which Moreno said they turned into a coloring sheet for patrons when dining.

To enter the contest to appear in Griffith’s painting, visit the restaurant at 425 Robinson Ave. For more information visit codygriffith.com, crestcafe.net or call the restaurant at 619-295-2510.