Surrounded by Art : 1,800-Foot Mural Turns Construction Fencing Into an Urban Palette

About a month ago, city officials hatched an idea to encircle the drab construction site of the new federal courthouse with a massive mural reflecting the city’s spirit.

They wanted it fast, in time for President Clinton’s visit for the building’s groundbreaking in June. They also wanted it to serve as a blazing focal point for the city’s efforts to convert downtown Santa Ana into an Artists Village, complete with galleries and studios where artists live and work.

Gallery owner Daniel Arvizu came through. He recruited 35 top artists who turned the downtown into an outdoor studio for three days at the end of April to create an 1,800-foot mural that winds around an entire city block and touches on such themes as city life, reverie, emotional pain and lighthearted parody.

The mural’s slogan, “A City Dreams of Art,” is also emblazoned on the wall in Spanish, “ Una Ciudad Suena Con Arte .”

“I see this as the possibility of things to come. The city is in full support of this,” said Arvizu, whose Artegeo gallery opens in the downtown’s historic Santora Building next month, along with a gallery of his own work, two more galleries and a theater company.

“It was a tremendous project that exceeded anything that the city or the artists thought they would come through with.”

Arvizu worked with city officials to block off streets and lay down tarps, and the city spent about $6,000 on paint and brushes. Local restaurants donated food to the artists as they transformed the plywood that wraps around the block bordered by Broadway and 4th, 5th and Ross streets. Council members Thomas E. Lutz and Lisa Mills and other city officials also lent help.

City officials never saw drawings for the project, which caused some apprehension in the days before the mural was finished May 1. But they put their faith in Arvizu, a slight man with a big mustache who inspires confidence in artists and bureaucrats alike.

“Since we only had a month, and really once we got going it was a couple of weeks, we just didn’t have time to worry,” said Susan Helper, the city’s downtown project manager. “We were really trusting. For a city that’s really unusual.”

Now, city officials and passersby are applauding the vivid collection of works, which depict a range of themes and artistic styles.

Artist Duncan Simcoe’s work hints at homelessness. Kenneth Verdugo chose to gently parody the justice system by honoring the work of 19th-Century French satirical cartoonist Henri Daumier, who took jabs at judges.

Other artists covered their 8-by-40-foot panels with humor, dreamlike figures and the urban symbols of anguish, hope and diversity. Jennifer Plessinger created a series of charcoal drawings with flowing figures representing what she said is “the delicate balance of living and the intricate nature of human relationships.”

David Kiddie and Meg Rowntree left their personal artistic styles at home and collaborated on a vivid panel that combines an upbeat urban scene with a crossword puzzle of hopeful words such as aspire, image, thriving and neighbor.

The panels are separated by repeating figures by artist Frank Dixon. The headless silhouettes, dressed like bureaucrats, are balancing two spheres--representing the balancing act of bureaucracy and creativity necessary to make the mural possible, Arvizu said.

City officials have talked of converting the downtown into a testing ground for working studio artists for years, but the Artists Village began taking shape only about a year ago.

The city rezoned part of downtown to allow artists to live and work there, and several historic buildings are already home to local artists. The mural project would not have been possible before, Helper said.

The barrier wall, the length of six football fields, will stay up until the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse is complete in about three years, Arvizu said. When the plywood wall comes down, Helper said the city hopes to keep the panels for use at other construction sites. City officials also plan to include the mural in an art tour of Santa Ana on May 13, and Arvizu is compiling a catalogue of the works.

Thi Nguyen, 24, an art student at Orange Coast College, heard about the mural in his art theory class and came to Santa Ana last week to take a look.

The stretch of art in the heart of downtown is encouraging, said Nguyen, who grew up in the city.

“I’m glad to see something happening,” he said. “This will probably motivate a lot of people, just looking at this wall.”