After
High school I hadn’t a very clear idea of where
I was going in my life. Before
my first mural job I had gone for a semester to Cal
Arts in Los Angeles. I had some amazing instructors
there including Michael
Miller who was a great influence on my development as a young painter.
When I came back to Willits, I painted the Saint Francis mural
and then moved to Hawaii.
MAUI:
I
moved to the island of Maui and really enjoyed living there.
I showed and sold a few pieces of art in Lahaina
but at the time
it was such a hassle to keep canvases from molding in the jungle
that I wasn’t able to paint as much as I wanted to. I stayed
for seven months, working all the time at my bed and breakfast
job, and mostly fed my soul with the beauty of the place—taking
time to swim in the ocean, jump off waterfalls and just take in
the beauty. This has had an incredibly profound effect on the colors
of my art since then.
EUROPE:
I
moved back to the mainland—to Willits again—and
then went to Portugal to follow a romance. There I worked mostly
as a street musician and rented a little room in a hotel. I enjoyed
a very bohemian life there, played with a lot of amazing musicians
and hung out with street artists. I took in the culture and schooled
myself in survival. Things didn’t work out with the girl,
so I ended up traveling across Europe. I first spent time in Spain—mostly
in Barcelona—then went to France, visited the museums I had
been wanting to see—the Louvre, Picasso museums, then in
Amsterdam and Holland—the Van Gogh museums, and several more
museums in London. However, I only scratched the surface and saw
about a quarter of what I wanted to see. I finished my trip in
Europe in the United Kingdom with a very windswept and snowy, sleeting,
rain-filled day at Stonehenge—just myself and my traveling
partner on the double-decker bus to Stonehenge. No one else was
there, because the wind was lashing and the snow was cutting your
face—a perfect end to quite an amazing year-long trip.
“SAINT
FRANCIS IN THE REDWOODS”
16’ x 60’
1996
Episcopal Church, Willits, California
I
started selling pieces at around twelve or thirteen—little
postcards and stuff for few dollars but soon after high school
I got my first big art commission from the Episcopal Church. I
was hired to paint a mural of Saint Francis in the Redwoods on
the side of the church. It was 60 feet long by 14 feet tall and
was the largest thing I had ever undertaken. It took me three months
to complete. It was an amazing opportunity to share the gift I
have pent up most of the time and that requires large walls to
get out. Small canvases can only contain a small amount of the
expression. As an extroverted expresser, I have a lot to get out.
Not that I don’t enjoy the detailed pieces and going deep
with paintings but I really enjoy that hugeness of painting outdoors.
Click photo for larger view
There
is a new church now, so the mural with be the backdrop to a small
shaded garden with stepping stones—a private spiritual
nook. The mural is about a being who came to earth with a tremendous
compassion and light and giving energy. The expression on the
face is an expression and love and adoration and trust in the
divine—something bigger. It is an awesome piece.
“Diversity
Dragon”
4’ x 32’
2000
Willits High School Plaza
Location:
Willits High School. Group: Students Taking Action Now for
Diversity
(STAND) Project: Diversity in Tolerance Mural. This
mural has the Earth in the center with two dragons snaking away
from the Earth. Each of the scales of the dragons contains a symbol
of free expression. Each student was given several scales to paint
whatever they wanted. It has religious symbols, poems and drawings—each
scale a different color. This mural contains the idea, “from
many, one.”
Click photo for larger view
12 Murals
5’ x 4’
2001
California Western Railroad Skunk Train,
Willits Depot, Commercial Street
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At
the Skunk Train depot, I installed twelve small panels
(5’ x
4’) depicting scenes along the skunk train, trestles
with trains, the conductor, the Train Singer, various
engines, some of the wildlife along the line. They
go all the way
around the old depot building.
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When
I returned to Willits after Hawaii, I got a job working with
the County of Mendocino Department of Public Health—The
Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Program (AODP) —working
with at-risk kids in the area coordinating mural projects. I
did a
number
of murals
in
the
county and worked with over 500 students in the course of four
years. Our project was cut by the state after the fourth year.
The county would set me up with a group of students and give
us a theme. Within that theme, I would get a strong sense of
what kind of images the students wanted to see in their mural.
I took notes on what the theme evoked for the students and assimilated
them into a visual—drawing them out in a very random way—covering
all the individual elements. Then the students would decide
what to keep and eliminate and more of the overall composition
and
layout. Everyone was part of the entire process. Then we
worked on a wall or on panels and I drew out what we had
on our plan
either in chalk or charcoal. Then I mixed the colors and
set up the student with the brush and had them stay within
the lines
in a paint by numbers style. I took them through each wave
of detail until the picture was finished. Then I went over
the whole
thing and did a layer of detail to bring the whole composition
together. We completed one or two projects a year.
“Diversity
in our Communities”
8’ x 32’
2001
E. Church at State Street, Ukiah
Location:
South face of the Church street building on the east side of
State Street.
The theme was “Diversity in our Communities.” It was
a very inclusive piece showing people of all races and religions
and genders—cohesively existing underneath one very large
sun at the center of the piece. At the time it was Barry’s
Fun Center. I think it is a model shop now.
Click photo for larger view
"Cesar
Chavez"
20’ x 8’
2001
Ukiah Community Center
Location:
The south facing wall of the Ukiah Community Center (viewed
from the parking lot that
is set back from North State
Street). This project was sponsored by the “Hunger Task Force” for
the Cesar Chavez Day of Service and Learning. I coordinated this
mural with over 300 students—mostly Hispanic—from the
Ukiah School District. They came in groups of fifteen and I would
take each group through all the steps of acrylic painting and give
them a spot on the mural to paint in. There were so many students
that I ended up creating a border around the piece where most of
the students signed their name. All the names formed such a multi-colored
pattern that it was hard to distinguish what it was. As you get
up close you can see these hundreds of names written over each
other making layers of color and little pictures.
I
had an assistant on that project from the Community Center—as
part of a work program for him. I taught him how to paint—his
name was Jesus—and his father worked in the grape fields
as a pesticide sprayer. I got to learn about the disgraceful practice
of using people to spray hard core pesticides—people who
were considered by the companies that hired them as less than human.
The mural was about Cesar Chavez, the union and the fight of the
UFW (United Farm Workers) to bring awareness of the farming situation
in California especially—which is where a lot of Mexicans
and sometimes illegal immigrants are working in slave conditions
so we can have our opulent tables of fruit. We don’t stop
to consider that these people are human and deserve rights, medical
services and that they are holding things together for the rest
of us. Cesar Chavez was a very powerful and determined leader of
that community. He is one of the unsung heroes, a character that
we tend to sweep under the rug. (missing a minute or so of commentary
here) He led thousands of people on marches and is responsible
for a lot of social reform.
Click photo for larger view
There is plenty of room for more Cesar Chavezes
in this world. In the hope of bringing his message to over 300
Hispanic students, maybe one or two of them will catch the fire
and realize that the fight is not over. Murals are a powerful tool
for bringing social awareness to people. Because of my connection
to the county, and the thread through Public Health to the Hunger
Task Force, my name was passed to them. This project was paid for
by The United Way.
“Reflections
of Life”
8’ x 8'
2002
Willits Café
Old
Willits Café building on Main Street/Hwy 101, on the
west side just south of the 101 Drive Inn (north of Commercial
Street across them the Wild West Express). Next, I got a job with
the County working at the San Hedron High School, an alternative
high school here in Willits. I coordinated a mural project with
about 14 students there—a memorial piece for a friend of
theirs who had been killed in a car accident—a young woman
from their class. I had a little part in the design of the mural
but mostly I based the mural on a drawing that was done by one
of the girls in the group. Everyone felt it was a worthy drawing
for making a mural around. It was an interpretation of their friend
looking in a mirror. You see her from behind and she is looking
out at you from the mirror. It is a very colorful mural on the
old Willits Café, an 8’ x 8’ mural. It has recently
been stolen. (no photo)
“Ravenswood”
8’ x 8’
2002
Willits Community Court School
I worked with the Court Community School on Commercial Street
to coordinate a mural for Ravenswood Community School. This is
a piece with a raven in the center with an American flag background
and a bit of Mendocino landscape and some free expression by the
kids around the piece.
“One Drum”
8’ x 20'
2002
Round Valley Elementary/Middle School
admin building
This
20’ x 8’ mural with a large palo drum in the center,
shows paintings of local musicians all around — as interpreted
from photographs brought by the students. The piece is called “One
Drum” and is based on various musicians who represent the
local color. They are playing together using various instruments—drums,
clickers, banjos, fiddles . . . against the backdrop of the Covelo
skyline and the mountains to the east.
Click photo for larger view
“Local
Color”
8’ x 12’
2004
Round Valley Elementary/Middle School
Admin building
The
second piece at the school is on the east face of the Covelo
elementary school administration office. This is an inclusive
landscape showing the
local animals with a fire in the center. Coyotes gather around
the fire, singing, with other local animals all around—bobcats,
cougars, bears, porcupines, otters . . . . The smoke goes into
the sky where it turns into a dream catcher made out of stars.
A great eagle enfolds the whole piece. It is a very beautiful.
I had a group of eight or nine elementary school students help
me. They did a great job.
Click photo for larger view
“Healthy
Rural Community Living”
8’ x 16’
2003
Department of Public Health Administration
Building
outside entrance, Dora Street at Observatory, Ukiah
This
solo piece
shows a very beautiful landscape scene with a water pool with lotus
flowers in the foreground and people hanging around the pool, enjoying
the coolness, the trees and shade. There is an old man playing
guitar, people playing soccer, vineyards off in the distance and
the Pacific Ocean.
Click photo for larger view
“Ocean
Sunset”
4’ x 8’
2003
Department of Public Health Administration
Building
Lobby for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Programs (AODP)
Dora
Street at Observatory, Ukiah
This
8’ x 4’ panel shows a sunset
landscape over Mendocino with a whales tail in the water.
All
my work is done as an independent contractor. Our state program
was cut by the current governor. It was decided
that it wasn’t
important to fund outreach programs for distressed youth. This
was a big blow. The state went from receiving hundreds of millions
of dollars for these projects (created by bonds) to 32 million
dollars and finally was cut back to one million dollars for the
whole state. Our goal was to create 20 public murals in a matter
of two years and we did.
“Mendocino
County”
12’ x 150’
2007
South-facing wall of JD Redhouse
Mercantile
(old
Country Mall across from Washington Mutual Bank)
Main Street/Hwy 101, Willits
This
mural can be seen in enlarged sections by clicking on
8 segments of the image
In September 2007, I completed a 150 foot long by 12 foot tall
mural depicting the entire panorama of Mendocino County, starting
from the ocean and going all the way to the eastern mountains of
San Hedron with the sunrise. My largest piece to date, it was painted
from a scissor-lift over a 5-week period during the hottest summer
recorded in Willits. My painting schedule went from 6:30 to 11:00
am and 5:00 pm until dark.
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Click photo for larger view |
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