SAN CLEMENTE : Modesty Wins Out in Mural Flap

With a few strokes of his brush, a local artist hopes that he has settled a controversy that arose recently over the Picasso he re-created as part of a mural, which was painted to mask a burnt building on a busy downtown corner.

Until last week, the bathers in Picasso’s “Two Women Running on the Beach” could be seen on the mural in their natural state, each with a slightly abstract breast flopping from her 1920s-era swimsuit.

“Now there’s no flopping going on,” said artist Sylvain Chamberland, who covered the exposed breasts of the women with a little paint Wednesday night.

Sylvain, who usually goes by just his first name, said he only wants a positive mural for the community and never intended to create controversy when he took on the beautification project.

The brightly colored, multi-scene mural is painted on a plywood barrier at Avenida del Mar and El Camino Real, surrounding what’s left of the historic Bartlett Building. It was destroyed by fire in February. Merchants had suggested a mural for the site, fearing that the burnt-out building at the gateway to downtown would hurt business.

Sylvain volunteered and recruited several others to help paint the mural, among them his assistant, Marlena Gammelgaard, and several San Clemente High School students.

“I just want everybody to be happy about it,” he said. “I didn’t want to get involved in any city politics.”

Sylvain, an Expressionist who has a studio in San Clemente, said he included re-creations of several Picasso beach-related scenes on the mural because he thought that they would be familiar and pleasing to the community. His own work--which he describes as “cathartic”--probably would have really upset people, he said.

While covering the breasts of the two bathers may have appeased those who were offended, building owner Ruth Clark said she is still not wild about including Picasso scenes on the eclectic mural, which also includes a surfer and playing children.

“Sylvain’s into Picasso, but not everyone is,” Clark said. “San Clemente is more of a Norman Rockwell town.”

Downtown Business Assn. president Wilma Bloom, owner of Ace Hardware, said that she too has heard a few complaints but that they were about another section, the one depicting the torso of a bikini-clad woman.

Bloom said some believe that the image is “a little too suggestive, being on that front street.”

“He’s a very talented man,” Bloom said of Sylvain. “But he’s a little ahead of San Clemente.”

Meanwhile, city officials, who have received some complaints about the mural, said it’s up to the building owner and the artist to resolve any problems.

“The city doesn’t think it’s that big of an issue, and we don’t want to get into the role of being art critics,” Community Development Director James Holloway said.

Clark, who is putting plans together to reconstruct the building, said she approved the mural thinking that it would only include scenes of children playing on the beach.

Sylvain, however, said he never made a secret of his designs and likes the mural the way it is.

“The community is just raving about how wonderful it is, at least to me,” he said.

There’s also the issue of what will happen to the mural once the building reconstruction is complete.

Sylvain said he would like to donate his work to the city or have it destroyed. Clark said she would like to try to auction it to cover a $1,500 bill for the plywood.

Despite such lingering questions, Clark said, she supports keeping the mural around the building.

“We’ll get everything resolved,” she said. “It just takes a little time.”