San Diego Artist to Greet Pontiff With 48-Foot-Long Mural

Even though Pope John Paul II’s itinerary does not include San Diego, some people are working diligently to make sure the city is well-represented, in the form of a 14-foot by 48-foot mural, when the pontiff arrives in Los Angeles next week.

The mural is being painted at a billboard company in east Mission Valley by well-known San Diego muralist Mario Torero, 34, an Inca Indian originally from Lima, Peru.

The mural, which shows a child sitting in the palm of an enormous hand, is a replica of Torero’s 4-by-4-foot painting, “The Child,” which hangs in the Vatican in Rome.

“It’s a message of peace and hope,” Torero said. “So much of what we see is commercial, not at all geared toward the public consciousness. I wanted to create a humanitarian mural.”

“The child could be either a boy or a girl, and I did that purposely,” Torero said. “The hand symbolizes us, all of us, for we hold the future in our own hands.”

Torero said he has received a proclamation from Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s office, thanking him for his efforts to ensure that San Diego will be properly represented during the Pope’s 11-day United States visit.

Also working on the project is Torero’s promoter, Dan Garcia, who came up with the mural concept, and Tom Malinoski, manager of Gannett Outdoor Co., the billboard company that donated the canvas, paints, brushes and locale to paint the mural.

Decided to Go for It

“We (Garcia and Malinoski) talked on the phone about the possibility of doing this for the first time about two weeks ago,” Malinoski said. “When he decided to go for it, we decided to go for all of it, to make sure it was done right.”

It is expected to be finished Sunday and taken to Los Angeles on Monday, he said. To make the transportation of the mural easier, it is being painted on a pliable surface known as Super-Flex.

“When it’s finished, we will be able to roll it up, stick it in a tube, load it onto a pickup truck and drive it up there,”

Malinoski said.

It will be displayed at various sites in the Los Angeles area during the Pope’s two-day visit, including a billboard on Century Boulevard near the Los Angeles International Airport, the parking lot of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and another billboard on Sunset Boulevard near Dodger Stadium.

The Pope will celebrate Mass at the Coliseum on Tuesday and Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.

“We wanted to create something that would be pleasurable for the Pope as well as all the other people who will see it,” Garcia said. “I’ve had the idea to do this for quite awhile, but for the longest time it seemed impossible. Then a week ago we were given the space, the opportunity, to accomplish it.”

Feels Pressure

Torero said he has no illusions that his mural will earn him an audience with Pope John Paul II during his trip to Los Angeles.

“Of course, it would be a blessing, an honor, but I believe in letting things happen,” Torero said. “If that is meant to be, of course, that would be wonderful.”

He said that, while he feels secure that the quality of his work on the mural is excellent, he does feel pressure because of the hurried pace he has had to work at to complete it.

“I’m not used to painting murals so quickly, and I’m going through a lot of emotional stress,” Torero said. “I feel very excited, very up, which is natural when you have to complete such a large painting in such a hurry.”

Torero is perhaps best known for the 40-foot by 60-foot “Eyes of Picasso” mural he painted on the side of the Community Arts Building in the Gaslamp Quarter in 1978. The mural, along with the building, was subsequently destroyed to make room for Horton Plaza.

He also painted the mural on the lower level of Aztec Center at San Diego State University, one of Martin Luther King Jr. at Christ the King Catholic Church on 32nd Street, and some of the ones found at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park and Barrio Logan’s Chicano Park.