The subjective nature of art recently became a roadblock for a potential mural trail in SLO County.
Arroyo Grande’s City Council and Architecture Review Committee gave a thumbs-down to two iterations of a mural design that hoped to adorn the exterior wall of a private property on Branch Street. Visit SLO CAL is helming the project and commissioned the local Canned Pineapple Co. to paint it.
Officials and some community members felt the design was too monochromatic and lacked imagery that accurately captured the essence of the city.
“I don’t do art,” City Councilmember Jim Guthrie said at the April 11 meeting. “But I did ask around quite a bit on this … and they’re very similar: How does it fit in with the Village?”
The mural design contains different shades of green with motifs of multiple strawberries, a horseshoe, two monarch butterflies, and a couple of flowers. It’s envisioned to be part of a mural trail with counterparts in Cambria and SLO, and Visit SLO CAL is funding all of them. The trail project is supposed to highlight the trajectory of monarch butterflies through San Luis Obispo County.
As part of the feedback it received, the City Council also read a comment from community member Brian Talley.
“It has an unusual green color covering the entire mural,” Councilmember Kate Secrest dictated from the letter. “Butterflies aren’t even their beautiful orange color. The monarchs are great, but I feel it’s not really Arroyo Grande but more so Grover Beach.”
The City Council wasn’t the first to voice concerns about the blueprint. On April 3, the Architectural Review Committee requested a second version of the design after members found it too monochromatic. They suggested adding images of strawberries and red brick that they believed were iconic to Arroyo Grande. But the edited design didn’t make the cut either.
In public correspondence, resident Laurie Hall suggested changes to the art.
“Artist [should] swap out purple flowers and butterflies for orange, so flowers can appear as either California poppy wildflowers or marigolds often seen in Arroyo Grande, and the butterflies will look like monarch butterflies,” she wrote in her letter. “The purple flowers currently look like tulips, and I’ve only seen those in AG at Trader Joe’s.”
Hall went on to recommend changing the color of the green and black strawberries on the mural design to red. If the artist didn’t want to change it, she said a backstory could be attached with the mural.
“It was a cold winter in late spring with lots of rain when this artwork was done, so the strawberries stayed green much longer,” she wrote. “The strawberries were behind schedule, so some partially ripe ones were dipped in chocolate for Easter.”
City Council members were hesitant to fully decline the project and instead asked Visit SLO CAL to make changes to the second design. But Visit SLO CAL Partner Engagement Manager Alyssa Manno told them such an edit could be unlikely.
She said that the group has already invested $18,000 into the project and further work will cost $100 an hour. Manno was doubtful whether Visit SLO CAL could continue injecting funds and staff hours into this specific mural in order to make it feasible for the Arroyo Grande Village. Further, she defended the design choice.
“The artist does have a specific style of art and that’s representative in the art that they’ve done in other communities, for example, with the monarch butterflies,” she said. “That’s something that’s crucial to the design.”
With Mayor Caren Ray Russom absent, the City Council unanimously made a motion for the artist to change the design if they’re willing to and bring it back for consideration.
Visit SLO CAL didn’t respond to New Times‘ queries about the City Council’s decision. Spokesperson Eric Parker said that they will release more information about the SLO CAL Mural Trail in May.
“The SLO CAL Mural Trail will allow visitors to move from one destination to another throughout SLO CAL (San Luis Obispo County) on a central theme of public art to experience as many destinations as possible,” Parker said via email. “It has been well over a year working through walls, permitting, working with artists to celebrate the monarch butterfly trail across SLO CAL.” Ī
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 7, 2023.
I bet I can find a place in Grover Beach that will take it! Call me š