Seascape Mural Sinking in Funding Storm

Funding and work have stopped on a highly publicized project to turn a wall of Oceanside’s beach community into a huge, colorful seascape by a local marine artist.

For more than a month, work on the 125-by-35-foot wall near the city’s fishing pier has been at a standstill. A skyline and a few clouds are the only clue to what was planned as a brightly-colored undersea world filled with fish, whales and other aquatic life playing off the North County coast.

But a dispute between artist John Jennings and his longtime supporter, Bill McMahon, has left the mural’s future doubtful.

Jennings, who lives in Vista, says he stands ready to donate the hours needed to finish the work. Working three days a week, he estimated, it would be complete within a month or two.

The only thing needed is about $3,500 for the expensive, weather- and salt-resistant paint. He would donate the paint himself, which costs $130 to $160 a gallon, if he could afford it, Jennings said.

“I had my heart set on doing it,” said Jennings, whose paintings have earned him a considerable reputation. He was recently named by the Guttenberg Festival in Long Beach, for the second year in a row, as one of the best marine artists in the world. “If we were in a better financial situation, we would just go ahead and pay for it ourselves.”

Oceanside industrialist Bill McMahon, who long has supported Jennings’ work, originally proposed the project, offered to furnish money for all the materials and got it accepted by the city, spokesmen for the city said.

McMahon said Wednesday that he has already spent about $10,000 of his own money and raised $2,100 from other donors to pay for promoting the project, sandblasting and refinishing the wall to get it ready for the mural, and the first batch of paint.

But McMahon has backed away from the project, saying he and other donors felt Jennings was not following through on his commitment.

McMahon gave as an example the first day of the project, after the wall was refinished, when he hired equipment, equipment operators and gathered volunteers to help Jennings.

McMahon asserts that Jennings worked about 90 minutes and then left with a newspaper reporter for an interview, not returning for hours as expensive equipment and workers sat idle.

“That’s not true at all,” Jennings responded. “He knew of an appointment I had with a reporter. What he did was bring in a truck with a scissor-rail (hoist) on it with no safety rail.”

Despite that, Jennings said, he worked from the hoist platform to begin the work. The reporter showed up, he took a 45-minute break to allow the paint to set up while he talked to the reporter, and then returned to work, he said.

But as he began working, Jennings said, McMahon told him the equipment and operators had to leave.

In the days following the incident, a rift developed between the artist and the sponsor, said Jennings.

“I am going to finish that wall one way or another,” Jennings insisted.

Despite distancing himself from the project, McMahon still says he wants to see it done and is willing to throw his support behind it again, if there is evidence Jennings will do more.

Jennings said he tried to do just that, working with the city Parks and Recreation Department to begin seeking donations to buy the paint.

He said he had even made arrangements to be at the city’s Cinco de Mayo celebration, with a booth and art works for sale just to support completion of the mural.

But the Oceanside Arts Commission has told Jennings it does not want him raising money in the city for the mural.

The arts commission originally approved the project in December and recommended that the City Council accept the mural, valued at $30,000 to $75,000, as a gift.

Commission Chairman Keith Broman said that, when McMahon proposed the project, there was no mention made of any fund-raising in the community. McMahon had guaranteed all the money for paint and materials.

“McMahon was the big boy,” said Broman. “He was buying the paint . . . it was the feeling of the commission that there should be no (public) money raised in connection with this.

“I’d like to see the work finished,” said Broman, but “we just feel we were snookered . . . into putting our stamp on it.”

Both Jennings and McMahon say the attitude of the commission has left them confused.

Jennings said he can understand the city’s position.

“He (McMahon) told everybody ‘I’ll take care of this, I’ll take care of that.’ When the hammer dropped, he didn’t do it,” Jennings said. “I feel I’ve kind of got stuck in the middle of a political situation.”

McMahon said he did not find out until Wednesday about the ban on fund-raising, but that he thinks Jennings should be allowed to raise the money for the project.

“They (the commission) are way, way off base,” he said. “I find it quite upsetting. If nothing can be done about it, I personally will fight it all the way.”