Once falling apart, Christo Umbrellas mural on Eye Street restored and remade
Nov. 1—The original mural had been in serious disrepair for well over a decade, with faded, peeling paint and the integrity of the wall behind it also crumbling.
But now the outdoor mural at Eye and 19th streets in downtown Bakersfield has been completely remade, with surface repair and a whole new image that still pays respect to the old one.
The subject remains the same: a depiction of the massive Christo Umbrellas project in 1991, when 1,760 huge yellow umbrellas were installed along the Tejon Pass south of Bakersfield, and 1,340 blue umbrellas were placed in Japan by the artist Christo and his wife and partner, Jeanne-Claude.
The project temporarily transformed the landscape in both locations. Now a new mural downtown may do some transformative magic of its own.
"I took on seeing this mural through to pay homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, my mom for her devotion to 'The Umbrellas' project, and to Kern County and Bakersfield," said Heather Pennella, who spearheaded the mural project over much of the past year.
Pennella, who works as the director of corporate and foundation relations at Cal State Bakersfield, had wanted to repair and restore the old mural for years, but she couldn't scrape together the funding.
Then a chance meeting brought together funding provided by the SeedCore Foundation and the Amicus Foundation.
The Kern Community Foundation acted as the nonprofit fiscal agency.
Suddenly, the goal of restoring the decrepit mural was in sight.
"I coordinated with the donors, KCF, the building owner and the city to get the permissions for the work," Pennella said.
She also happened to be longtime friends with Jennifer Williams-Cordova, an experienced and talented mural painter.
"Because we had worked together before, Heather asked me to be the artist for this project," Williams-Cordova said.
But there's another historic connection as well. Heather Pennella's mother, Christina Pennella, all those years ago, was assistant to the project director for "The Umbrellas."
They lived in Lebec at the time, and when the elder Pennella learned that Christo and Jeanne-Claude were scouting the area for a possible project, she wrote them a letter offering to help.
A couple of years later, they hired her.
"I was 7 years old, when they came to our house in Lebec, Calif. to take photos," Heather remembered.
No wonder her goal of bringing the Christo mural back to life stayed alive in her heart for so long.
"It doesn't hurt to have a professional muralist as a friend," Pennella said. "Working with Jennifer on this project was amazing."
Initially, there was hesitation, borne out of respect, to paint over another artist's work.
"I did some leg work on trying to find out who did the original mural," Pennella said.
But neither of the women were able to identify the artist.
"We still don't know who the original artist was," Williams-Cordova said.
As it turned out the old mural was not salvageable anyway. The wall behind it needed to be scraped, surfaced and primed. It was coming apart.
As a way of keeping some of the old and paying respect to the unknown artist, Williams-Cordova "sort of combined both compositions," she said.
The new mural is certainly hers, but it carries echoes of the original artist.
Tina Marie Brown, who operates Tina Marie's Downtown Cafe at the location, said she's thrilled by the changes — and so are her customers.
"Isn't it an amazing restoration of the original Cristo mural?" Brown said. "Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen. Our community is the best."
The restoration has been needed for quite some time, Brown said, calling the result "impressive."
"They say it takes a village, right?" she asked.
Yes. And several buckets of paint.
Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.
