{"id":244968,"date":"2012-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/dinosaur-mural-brightens-north-park\/"},"modified":"2012-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T07:00:00","slug":"dinosaur-mural-brightens-north-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/dinosaur-mural-brightens-north-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur mural brightens North Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Margie M. Palmer | SDUN Reporter<\/strong>

\"Dinosaur<\/a>
The mural painted by Mark Paul Deren, also known as Madsteez, on the wall of Wang's North Park restaurant. (Photo by Margie M. Palmer)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

The North Park business district has a new neighbor. It is not a new storefront, nor is it a new resident. Painted alongside the west-facing wall of Wang\u2019s North Park restaurant is a 50-foot cartoon dinosaur.<\/p>\n

Wang\u2019s North Park co-owner Tom Eads said he and his partners were initially reluctant to have the mural painted on the side of their restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation first came about when Pacific Magazine approached us saying they were putting together their annual art issue,\u201d Eads said. \u201cThey told us they found an artist to do some street art, which would be featured on the cover, and asked if we\u2019d consider letting him use our wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

The concern for the restaurant owners was not having any input on what would be painted, Eads said, and at first they said no. <\/p>\n

Their interest was piqued, however, when they learned street artist Mark Paul Deren was involved. Deren, also known as Madsteez, has painted murals for Nike, including the Nike-commissioned FIFA World Cup mural in Hollywood, Calif, among others. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to his website and thought his work was really great,\u201d Eads said. <\/p>\n

Once they altered their perspective, he said, their minds began to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized we\u2019re in an art district where there already is a lot of street art,\u201d Eads said. \u201cIt then became clear that this shouldn\u2019t be about Wang\u2019s, but about the type of positive impact the art could have on the neighborhood. That\u2019s when we changed our mind[s].\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist said the project moved quickly once he got the green light.
\n\u201cI think Pacific Magazine connected me with the owners on March eighth or ninth and I began painting on the 12th,\u201d Deren said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even meet the guys until the 13th. There was no real dialogue about the project beforehand, which was cool for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eads said, however, Pacific Magazine\u2019s editor faxed a rendering of what the mural would look like before the painting started. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was thrilled; absolutely blown away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Deren said the mural took five days and 10 gallons of paint to complete. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was completely self-financed,\u201d he said, adding that half the fun of the project came in knowing that the bright pink dinosaur \u201cwould brighten people\u2019s day. They just gave me the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria, whose district includes North Park, said that community art adds life to a neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic art greatly influences community character and adds life to District Three’s neighborhoods,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cBeauty is in the eye of the beholder so not every piece of art will be uniformly loved and appreciated, but each brings an opportunity for discussion and draws attention to the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eads said the feedback thus far has been positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of people, young and old, tell us how much they like it\u2026 We think this is the coolest and most amazing piece of artwork,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just really impressive. We hope that this is one of those things that will draw people to North Park so they can see what an amazing neighborhood it is.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margie M. Palmer | SDUN Reporter The North Park business district has a new neighbor. It is not a new storefront, nor is it a new resident. Painted alongside the west-facing wall of Wang\u2019s North Park restaurant is a 50-foot cartoon dinosaur. Wang\u2019s North Park co-owner Tom Eads said he and his partners were initially […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":244969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Dinosaur mural brightens North Park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}