Paint-by-numbers mural draws south Sacramento residents to beautification project

Approaching Franklin Boulevard in south Sacramento, color spills across your field of vision as murals covering school buildings, local businesses and sidewalk fences multiply.

On Saturday, music added to the bright atmosphere, pouring out of the 21st Avenue underpass as community members poured in — biking, walking and pushing strollers onto the closed-off street to participate in a community painting event and leave their mark on the neighborhood’s newest mural.

A man wearing a hat identifying him as a Vietnam War veteran was kneeling on the sidewalk, carefully adding strokes of blue to the wing of an outlined butterfly, while a little girl with plaited pigtails and orange Crocs stuck her hand into a cup of purple and smeared messy handprints across the wall. A pair of teenage girls posed for a picture, paint streaked across their arms and legs.

Jaya King stood in the middle of it all, buzzing with energy, her voice rising to join the echoes of chatter filling the underpass as she hugged person after person who had been eagerly waiting for this project to come to fruition.

King is the artist who designed a mural for the underpass as part of Caltrans’ Highway 99 Beautification and Safety Improvement Project — and on Saturday, she saw hundreds of hands grab brushes and small cups of paint to bring her paint-by-numbers vision to life.

“This is the wall’s birthday,” King said, gesturing to the taco truck parked nearby, and the speaker blasting Spanish music into the tunnel. “That’s why we’re having this celebration.”

The project has been in the works for nearly three years and will eventually include seven murals, as well as significant infrastructure improvements in the area, according to Uli Smith, an artist who has worked on some of the other murals lining the street.

State comes through, as do local artists

In addition to the long search for funding, which was eventually provided by a Clean California Initiative grant, she noted that the search for artists had very specific criteria: the artists had to be local, and they had to be willing to conduct outreach to crowdsource ideas for what images residents felt would be most representative of their community.

Smith and King said that the outreach they led after being selected included talking to local businesses, holding meetings and canvassing the street. For this mural, King settled on featuring a tree, monarch butterflies, falcons and marigolds, among other imagery.

“I’m stepping back from the ownership of it,” King said. “This is where they get to paint their mural.”

So how does it all work?

King said that she simplified the mural design she created so that it would be easier to split into sections. She covered the walls with pink paint as a background color, painted sections at the top that were too high for residents to easily reach, and then sketched in an outline of the design on the lower walls.

Each section was labeled with a number and a dot of paint to indicate the color intended to fill in the space. Participants could walk up to tables in the center of the tunnel to pick up small cups of paint, similarly labeled with numbers that matched corresponding sections of the mural.

A portion of the street on either side of the overpass was also blocked off, with booths hosted by community resource organizations lined up alongside a shaded area with seating where participants could take a break from painting.

Under the shady overpass, some residents came with family or friends, while others came alone, but fell quickly into conversation with their fellow amateur artists.

Adults, youths and a state lawmaker join in

Marques Pitcher brought his two kids — Jayden, 10, and Averie, 6 — as well as his dog Zorro. He heard about the event from his girlfriend, who was running a booth for a local school at the event.

“We came out to support her and to see what was going on,” Pitcher said. “And my kids really do love painting, so it’s a win-win.”

He said that he has driven through the underpass before, and described the difference that the artwork makes on the feel of the area.

“I just drove through here on Friday, and saw a little bit of the artwork that I guess was a bit of a blueprint,” he said. “To see this is amazing.”

In addition to residents and local community leaders, local leaders including Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, came to the event to participate in painting the walls.

“Clean California was part of the state budget that we voted on,” McCarty said, swirling his paintbrush through a cup of bright yellow paint. “A lot of times we fund stuff in the budget and we’re like, well, hopefully somewhere it’s getting implemented as it’s supposed to be. And this is pretty exciting, because I can literally go and see it make a difference.”

He said that he’s a big fan of murals in general, but that he thinks a community-created one is even better.

“(This is) the dream!” McCarty said. “They can drive by and say, ‘Hey, I helped paint the wing of the falcon!’ Which is what I’m doing right now, by the way.”

Leo Rubio, a consultant with the city of Sacramento, explained the larger infrastructure changes that the city is planning for the area as part of the $13.2 million dollar Caltrans project, funded by the Clean California Initiative and other sources of federal and state money. Rubio noted that part of the motivation behind the project is to bolster the business district, and encourage outside residents to visit the neighborhood.

“We want to make this a place where people want to come, and maybe slow down and see what we have to offer here,” Rubio said.

Road changes, bike lane still to come

The project includes plans to reduce the road size from five lanes to three in order to integrate a protected bike lane on either side of the street, as well as adding better street lighting, better storm water drainage and better crosswalks and planting several trees. Progress will continue through next year.

Marques said that he has noticed the improvements, saying that his car “is appreciative” of the pavement and pothole repairs that have been done.

As the pieced-together picture started to take shape, revealing orange-and-black butterfly wings and pink flowers, the crowds continued to grow, gathering at the taco truck for a much-needed lunch break. Residents took selfies with their small section of the wall, immortalizing their contribution to the neighborhood’s collection of public art.

Smith turned slowly in a circle, grinning at the sight, and asked, “What’s better than getting the community to take ownership of their space?”