COUNTYWIDE : ‘People’s Art’ Covers Walls in the County

Walls enclose, divide, confine. But for the muralist, walls liberate.

Around Ventura County, the walls of school gymnasiums, restaurants, furniture stores and community centers offer canvasses for muralists.

One is Michael Mora, who has painted walls in Ventura, Saticoy and Santa Paula. He and Jaime Estrada are completing another on the north wall of El Concilio del Condado in Oxnard to be dedicated April 28 and 29.

While many muralists paint large open areas of sky or mountains, Mora said he prefers detailed work.

“We want people to trip out on every inch of our murals,” Mora said.

For Linda Taylor, painting a mural can be therapeutic.

As a concerned parent, she watched anxiously in 1983 when children were bused to Oak View Elementary School. Taylor suggested that the children paint a mural on the school to draw everyone into a common project.

Students chose an “Over the Rainbow” theme and each class participated. Kindergartners painted the butterflies and flowers at the bottom. Older children climbed scaffolding to paint elves and unicorns.

Taylor went on to work with teen-agers on murals at Ventura High School’s Larrabee Stadium and on a grocery store wall in Moorpark. She also created a mural on the old Pierano Grocery Store wall across Main Street from Mission San Buenaventura.

Ventura’s oldest mural was painted in 1936-37 by Gordon Grant as a federal arts project. The work winds around the upper part of four interior walls of the main post office lobby and shows the county’s major industries, resources and commerce.

A city landmark, the mural is listed on the Federal Register of Fine Arts of the Smithsonian Institution and has been appraised at $80,000.

Ventura’s newest mural, in the City Hall atrium, relates to an older age. A collage of ancient cave paintings by Santa Barbara artist Kathleen Conti was completed in November.

For Mora, murals are unique.

“I always appreciated murals and liked the concept behind them--that they are the people’s art rather than gallery art or art in people’s homes,” Mora said. “They belong to the community.”