By Kit-Bacon Gressitt
Uptown’s rich collection of public artworks, displayed on everything from utility boxes to multi-story structures, is about to become even richer. Between Sept. 8 and 12, stroll through your neighborhood, and you’re likely to see one of 22 internationally renowned artists transforming city walls into murals — murals with a message.
The mission of the street art series, titled “Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans,” is to “galvanize the local community and raise awareness [of] the importance of San Diego’s precious marine natural resources.”
“We’re advertising for Mother Nature,” said Christopher Konecki, coordinator of Sea Walls San Diego and one of the artists who have volunteered their talents to the project.
Sea Walls is an international program of PangeaSeed Foundation, implemented in strategically located cities, with the goal of “giving oceans a voice.”
The San Diego project, a collaboration with Surfrider Foundation, Cohort Collective and Kaaboo Del Mar, echoes calls from around the globe to take better care of the world’s oceans. President Barack Obama has even joined the chorus with his recent expansion of a marine national sanctuary in Hawaii, home base of PangeaSeed, and the message is not a new one. A previous rendition of the Sea Wall project was conducted in 2014, with a smaller focus on San Diego’s downtown neighborhoods.
This year’s effort has a plan for 22 murals throughout the city, five of them in the Uptown area, with one already completed.
Located at 4404 Park Blvd., the 25-by-25-foot brush and roller mural is titled “Love Your H2O.” It was painted by Gloria Muriel, a local artist originally from Mexico. Like all the artists, Muriel was invited to participate and provided a list of subjects from which to select for her mural.
“I did a little bit of research,” Muriel explained. “I got inspired by water, our most precious resource, and, oh man, we’re so unconscious of how we use it. I need to step it up and take more care of the water, the oceans. A lot of people just want to look the other way, but they really don’t know how bad it is.”
In describing her mural, Muriel said, “my style is very organic. There’s a water nymph. She’s very aware, staring right at you. Her hair turns into water. There’s a lot of waves. Her third eye is a water molecule — I wanted to make it a little bit more obvious — and there’s a cascade coming from the top, water flowing and cleansing.”
Muriel said that the building’s owner was so enthused she didn’t even have to provide a sketch to proceed with her mural, and she hopes those who see it will be similarly motivated. “What can people do? Little things. Take less minutes for your shower. Water is precious. We just have to be educated.”
To that end, the street artist known as Persue is slated to paint a mural at Nomad Donuts’ future location at 3102 University Ave., pending approval from the building’s owner. The theme is borrowed from the Surfrider Foundation’s Hold Onto Your Butt program, a campaign to rid beaches of cigarette butts. Persue, who has been creating street art for 30 years, is a surfer, which makes him particularly sensitive to the need to encourage active engagement in protecting the ocean from polluted runoff.
Persue described Sea Walls as “a group of ocean lovers that are building awareness for a broader audience. They bring their voices out to urban areas of the world. They use artists to help communicate these issues. The project is a way for us to contribute to building awareness, to play a part.
“I guess I’ve been living that lifestyle for decades now,” Persue continued, “because of where I come from as an artist; my roots of being a graffiti artist and turning into a street artist, always trying to raise awareness about things I find important for our community and for me. Our hope is that people would look into and discover what we’re trying to say and, in doing so, be educated and make better decisions about how they conduct their lives, make small changes that together have a bigger effect.”
Other Uptown mural locations and artists, pending approval, include:
Artist and Craftsman Supply, 3804 Fourth Ave. in Hillcrest: artist Jet Martinez; The Observatory North Park, 2891 University Ave.: artist Askew; Cardamom Café, 2977 Upas St. in North Park: artist Lauren YS.
A map and list of final locations will be posted at PangeaSeed.org, and daily project updates are available on the Cohort Collective Instagram account at instagram.com/cohortcollective.
Completion of the murals will be celebrated at a closing reception on Sept. 14, from 6 to 11 p.m. The public is invited to join the artists at La Bodega Gallery for live music, painting and prizes.
—Kit-Bacon Gressitt writes commentary and essays on her blog, Excuse Me, I’m Writing, and has been published by Ms. Magazine blog and Trivia: Voice of Feminism, among others. She formerly wrote for the North County Times. She also hosts Fallbrook’s monthly Writers Read authors series and open mic, and can be reached at [email protected].
