PPAC- Sacramento

All of these pictures were taken by me on my old phone (Galaxy J7) in 2019. Only the first one was edited. Each photo is followed by the name of the artist, and a brief description of the mural. Clicking on the name of the artist will take you to their personal web page or Instagram page.

Wide Open Walls Mural by Nate Frizzell: A photo-realistic woman in a short white dress is floating through the air, surrounded by red, yellow, and blue butterflies. The butterflies appear to have been cut out of floating pages. Scissors over the woman’s dress imply that she was cut out of a book of paper dolls.

Wide Open Walls mural by Charmaine Olivia: The mural depicts a powerful-looking woman (who I presume to be Native American) looking down on the viewer. She has dark, smoky eyes, dark wavy long hair, a necklace of regalia with matching earrings, rainbow colored dress, and a halo of third eyes as a head dress. She is depicted from the chest up, putting the viewer at level with her breasts.

Mural by John S. Huerta: This mural, which faces a restaurant courtyard, is of Frida Kahlo, surrounded by birds. The background is made up of triangles in every color except for purple, which has been reserved for Frida’s right arm. Frida herself is superimposed with rainbows. One of the five birds drinks nectar from one of the three flowers on Frida’s head. One has its beak pointed straight at her neck, perhaps implying that it is about to drink from her jugular. Frida’s knowing brown eyes are the only element of the mural that is not brightly colored.

Mural by Bernardo Berlanga Q.: This mural, which is in the same restaurant courtyard as the Frida mural, depicts the Lady of Guadalupe from the chest up, with her head slightly bowed towards her praying hands. She is wearing a red dress with yellow accents, and a blue cape with golden stars. Multi-colored spikes emanate from her, creating a sort of rainbow halo effect. Below is another picture of the same mural from a different angle.

Mural by Christine Shields: The mural is primarily a side profile of an Indigenous woman, from the neck up. She has straight long black hair adorned by a single pink California rose. Behind her head, the wall is blank. In front of her face are several native flowers, including dahlias, violets, and a hibiscus flower. The skyline above her depicts redwoods (which are Native) being overshadowed by palm trees.

“Starfighter” mural by Christina Angelina, in progress. You can see the completed mural here. This mural depicts a woman dressed in robes and a combat helmet, with only her face exposed. The mural (in this stage) is almost entirely blue and gray, with red accents. Once construction was complete, the mural was expanded to cover the alley.

There are three murals in the above picture.
Left: Mural by Maren Conrad: This mural depicts Chinese immigrants building a railroad. They sit on the tracks of a bridge, with an engine and redwoods in their background. This mural is entirely brown, black, and white. At the bottom of the mural are the words “Uniting a Nation.”
Middle: Mural by Tavar Zawacki: The wall is teal colored, with a single sheet of blue and white geometric patterned origami being folding in on itself from three sides.
Right: Mural by Jorit Agoch: This mural focuses on the face of a young boy, who appears to be Native American or Chicano. His eyes convey sadness and anger far beyond his years. Two painted lines trail down each side of his face. He is enveloped in darkness.
Below is another angle of the first two murals.

Last but not least: artists unknown. These murals face the three murals from the above photos. They are in the parking lot, hidden from street view. The left mural depicts an older woman smoking butterflies. The mural on the right is of a little boy sitting on a piece of paper, reading a book. He is sitting on top of crossbones, but one of the crossbones is a pencil, implying that he is the skull, and his education is a matter of life or death. To his right are the words, “I will not go to prison, I will not go to prison.”

Post Created for PPAC (Photographing Public Art Challenge)