A collection of students, in collaboration with M-A’s chapter of the National Art Honor Society, created and installed a four-by-eight foot mural in Redwood City earlier this year. The mural, featuring a San Francisco cable car and poppies against the city’s iconic painted ladies, promotes themes of solidarity and community.
The Redwood City Arts Commission organized a Youth Mural Alley competition, its third year, to provide local youth with the opportunity to create a mural adorning a local alleyway. The mural was installed behind Hotel Sequoia, reinvigorating the dark space and making it a vibrant and safer community space. The Commission chose 10 submissions from various schools to display in the alley.
Art teacher Mitzi Ulloa heard about the mural from Ceramics teacher Mike Burton-Tillson and promptly introduced the project to her students.
Ulloa has assumed a facilitating role in these types of projects before. “I have experience in being a facilitator when it comes to a lot of murals—at the previous high school that I was at, the whole place is just covered in murals,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite mediums, honestly.”
“I presented it to my art students, and [senior] Charlotte Anthony was in my class, and she was like, ‘Wow, this is great. I would totally be interested in being involved in this project,’” Ulloa said. “And from there, we created a mural crew.”
Senior Charlotte Anthony headed the mural’s production. President of M-A’s chapter of the NAHS, a club dedicated to drawing more awareness to art, Anthony first introduced the competition to the club. “It started as a club activity, and then it sort of expanded outside of that,” Anthony said. Fellow art students swiftly began demonstrating interest in the project, and in a number of weeks, a substantial group had gathered to create the mural.
“I’ve always really wanted to do a collaborative art installation,” Anthony said. “I really like how, specifically with murals and art installations, art can be used to revitalize certain areas and sort of transform infrastructure and community spaces.”
From the mural’s inception, it was a collaborative effort. “It was sort of a combination of a lot of people’s ideas,” Anthony said. “I remember, I think me and [senior] Olivia Tantisira were originally part of the brainstorming process, and we both wanted to do things sort of related to California and California scenery. We also wanted to do this theme of unity and connection. I feel like that’s very important, especially right now.”
After selecting groups, the Redwood City Arts Commission granted each a stipend for materials. M-A primarily spent theirs on wall paints, which come in bulk and are durable enough to withstand the elements.
The completed mural displays San Francisco’s characteristic painted ladies, and a crowded cable car as the work’s focal point in the painting’s foreground. The cable car appears to generate color as it moves right—the cable car separates a colorless part of the painting from an antithetically vivid one. The painting’s colorful side contains California poppies and a ladybug, contrasting with a weed plant on the achromatic side.
Creating the mural offered club members the ability to try new styles and work with materials they had not worked with previously. “I’ve never done large scale pieces before. I’m mostly painting on watercolor paper–which is not that large,” Tantisira said. “It’s really interesting to work on a larger surface with different materials, and in a more collaborative environment.”
While the mural was painted, the team creating it expanded. “Ms. Ulloa helped me recruit people who might be interested,” Anthony said. “Over the course of around two months, we had painting sessions where people could come in and work on the mural.”
The mural has received positive recognition since its installation. “I’ve gone and visited a couple of times, and it’s always really fun, because sometimes you’ll just see people spontaneously go and check it out, which is really exciting,” Anthony said.
“I’ve gotten positive reception from folks who have seen it, from community members here on campus who saw the process,” Ulloa said.
Due to its sheer size and the lengthy process that its creation encompassed, the mural’s production was a large feat for its creators. “I’m really proud of the mural crew. I’m proud of Charlotte’s leadership and her skills in organizing and getting this together and making it happen,” Ulloa said.
The mural can be found in the alley beside 816 Main Street in Redwood City.
