Anti-Black Friday: Checking out the restored and redesigned "Peace on Earth" mural in City Heights

From this...

(northeast corner of Home Ave and Fairmont Ave, circa Sept 2014)

to something completely different!


Earlier this summer we noticed folks were "fixing" the mural...

(late June 2016)

There were some men weeding around the embankment and a few more were patching up holes.

Fast forward to late November when TC and I were exploring and  went out to City Height Coffee House...TC took these photos for me as I rounded the bend up the hill.



The colors were so vibrant!  The birds looked like they were done by Glow (Gloria Muriel) but I wasn't sure since I didn't have a chance to stop and look. Looks like "Peace on Earth" was also repainted in a different font.

Underneath the blue bird was the familiar signature. I was correct in my guess that the artist was Glow.

Then a few days later, which was "Black Friday", Bert and I went out to go to City Heights Coffee but before doing so, he parked across the street so I could walk over and take some photos.

There are rainbows on the south facing end, along with scattered diamonds.  The restored mural was a collab between Gloria Muriel and Beth Emmerich and local children and volunteers.

View from the opposite corner.

View on the west side of Fairmont.


I loved the swirling colors within the beautiful hummingbirds.










Some asshole whistled and yelled something at me while I was snapping photos. Whatever it was, I don't know and didn't care to know. I just ignored him and didn't even turn my head. I really hate when men do that (not that it happens often nowadays). Makes me want to wish great bodily harm upon their sorry ass misogynistic selves. It sucked that I couldn't fully enjoy taking photos of beautiful artwork without feeling violated.




"Peace on Earth" mural timeline (courtesy of the Azalea Park Neighborhood Association fb page):
PEACE ON EARTH MURAL TIMELINE - 2016

• Muralist Gloria (Glow) Muriel offered to give the community a free mural if I could find a wall for her. This was months ago.
• Price Philanthropies awarded a small grant to Project CLEAN that paid for background paint and miscellaneous supplies.
• Patty Vaccariello, Chair of the City Heights Area Planning Committee, put a neighbor, Aracely Lara, who lives across from the mural wall, in touch with me about updating the mural, which was last updated by Neighbor and Artist Laurie Carlock. Prior to that, the Peace on Earth mural was donated in 1991 by Kenneth (Quasar) Thompson with some Project CLEAN grant money for supplies.
• Price Charities sent an Urban Corp team to take down the weeds below and at the top of the wall, not having any clue that we were going to be working there.
• Mike LaBruno, the leader of the San Diego Carpenters Volunteers, got in touch with Laurie Carlock because his wife happened to pass by it one day and thought it would be a good project for them to help with.
• The KCC (Kids Cleanup Crew) led by Neighbor Aracely Lara and her daughter held a cleanup around the wall on July 23.
• The Carpenters Volunteers patched the wall on July 30.
• The owners of the parcel cut the weeds on the entire lot in response to a letter from me and a follow up letter from Jeanette Neeley of the City Heights Town Council.
• Price Charities responded to my request to send Urban Corp to power wash the wall on Friday, September 9.
• The Carpenters Volunteers painted the wall with the background paint on Saturday, September 10, and Aracely Lara took matching paint to touch up any graffiti bombs.
• On September 20 Gloria along with Artists Alex Banach and Artist Lara Ashley arrived to start on the mural but, lo and behold, it rained all day, so they measured the wall and went home. The mural was started on September 21. Beth Emmerich was invited to help with the mural and she painted a beautiful hummingbird on September 22.
• Laurie Carlock started on the middle rainbow on September 24 and invited kids to help on Sunday, September 25.
• The mural was completed on September 25.
• Price Charities sent Urban Corps to coat the mural with Permashield on September 29.

Transforming City Heights: fb page

Azalea Park Neighborhood Association: fb page

Link to photos for the "Peace on Earth" mural here

+ a mention in the October 2016 edition of the Azalea Park newsletter

Location of restored mural by Gloria "Glow" Muriel and Beth Emmerich
Northeast corner of Fairmont and Home Ave
San Diego, CA

There's more amazing art out here in our fine city in neighborhoods flung far and wide. It's worth exploring and learning something new during our weekend ventures. Best of all, the sights are free and we weren't surrounded by crass commercialism on "Black Friday".