Furry faces are all over Costa Mesa resident’s ‘Friends of Brentwood Park’ mural
Becky Feltman’s wall has gone to the dogs.
Oh, it’s not in bad shape or anything — quite the opposite, in fact.
It just happens to be lined with 341 furry faces — mostly dogs, but also a few cats and even a rat.
Over the past seven months, Feltman has painted every one of those mugs — creating something that’s part mural, part neighborhood landmark on her property facing Monte Vista Avenue.
These are the “Friends of Brentwood Park,” the animals Feltman has come to know as they and their human companions pass by her house en route to the adjacent park in Eastside Costa Mesa.
“Every one of them has their own personality, and I’ve met almost every single one,” she said as she looked over her work. “I believe I’ve seen every one of them.”
Her oil paintings are small but intricately detailed. Trademarks like the soulful eyes of a boxer, the mischievous smirk of a Chihuahua and the wrinkly folds of a pug pop out from the brick.
Several phrases are etched in calligraphic font. Among them: “Dogs are miracles with paws,” “A dog is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than himself,” and “Lost: Husband and dog, reward for dog.”
Mother’s artistic touch
Feltman never considered herself much of an artist. That title was better bestowed on her mother, Peggy Gardner, who was a professional painter and muralist.
Before her death about four years ago, Gardner also lived in Costa Mesa, not far from her daughter.
Growing up, Feltman never felt like she had inherited her mother’s artsy touch, so she set aside the artist’s brush for decades.
As an adult, Feltman’s home business — she’s a special-events florist — became her creative outlet.
That changed about a year ago when her grandson, Lincoln, was born.
Gardner previously had painted murals to decorate the bedrooms of the family’s children. With her gone, Feltman decided to try her hand at it.
“I could feel the brush moving before I even started,” she said. “After 40 years of not painting, it just came really naturally and it looked so good.”
Painting for the tyke’s safari-themed nursery awoke something in Feltman. She began to paint more and more — animals, mostly.
Luckily, plenty of subjects could be found close to home, walking with their owners either to Brentwood Park or the Back Bay.
“I get to know the dogs more than I do the people,” Feltman said with a laugh. “I have treats for all the dogs that come by. So I thought, ‘You know what? I would love to put the dogs that I know on the wall.’ ”
She put out a sign asking anyone interested to send her pictures of their pups. The only criteria was that the animal had to frequent Brentwood Park.
The response was overwhelming. The mural grew brick by brick as more and more people got wind of what she was doing.
Now it stretches across the entire wall that’s roughly 6 feet tall and 25 feet long.
Though she’s put countless hours into creating the mural, Feltman wouldn’t dream of charging people to include their pets. Besides, she said she gets something deeper out of the experience.
“When I get here, it’s my Zen,” she said. “I really feel my mom is with me.”
Community fixture
Though it’s been around only a few months, the mural has become a fixture of the tight-knit neighborhood.
Eastside resident Roger Steeber has known Feltman for about 20 years and helped paint her wall in preparation for the mural.
Five of his dogs are pictured. Several — including Pepito, a Chihuahua — have “R.I.P.” next to their names to indicate that they’ve passed on.
“Every morning when I run by her house, I see that,” he said of the mural. “It cheers me up because my dogs are there.”
Tony Bober has lived in the neighborhood for about 24 years. Two of his and his wife’s dogs — Brittanys named Rusty and Huntley — have their portraits on the wall.
“There have been times when I’ll be walking the dogs through the park and when we walk past the wall I show them, ‘See? There’s your picture,’ ” Bober said. “People will stop, look at the pictures on the wall, chitchat when they’re walking. It’s a really cute thing. It’s really added to the neighborhood.”
Bober also has known Feltman for about 20 years and said the mural fits her generous personality.
“She’s very giving,” he said. “She’s the kind of person that if, unfortunately, somebody was down and out or needed a little something, she would step up to the plate.”
Feltman said many people stop to ask how their animal friends can make the cut for the mural.
As if to illustrate the point, a car slowed to a stop in front of the wall.
“Are you the artist?” asked the driver, Anderson Seal, to which Feltman nodded. “This is great work.”
“That’s a great face,” Feltman responded, nodding toward Brutus, a golden retriever-pit bull mix poking his curious head out of the open window.
Feltman and Seal talked for a bit about how that “great face” could be added to the wall.
“This is so cool; it’s so different,” Seal said. “It’s very unique.”
No plans to stop
Though the main portion of the wall is full, Feltman has no plans to stop adding to the mural.
Some of her neighbors have volunteered to clear plants off another portion of her wall so she can expand “Friends of Brentwood Park” to that.
With a smile, she noted she already has a “waiting list” of about 10 dogs.
Feltman plans to hold a reception this month to mark the completion of the mural’s first phase and celebrate with her neighbors — both the two-legged and four-legged kinds.
“It’s so heartwarming, I just love the whole idea of it,” she said of the mural. “I kind of feel like Mom would be really proud of me.”
Of all the words on the wall, perhaps the most important are near the top.
They express a mission statement of sorts — an explanation for why she continues to go out weekend after weekend, brave sometimes unforgiving weather and battle shaky knees and a balky back to paint something for her community:
“Lovingly painted by Becky Feltman. Dedicated to the memory of mom, Peggy Gardner, who was here for every brushstroke.”
Twitter @LukeMMoney
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