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Photo Essay

The City is our Canvas

Colorful messages of peace, dignity and hope are cropping up in neighborhoods throughout San Francisco, Oakland and East Palo Alto, California. With roots in the contemporary mural movement of the 1970s, public art in the Bay Area continues to flourish under the leadership of artists and organizations that are working with youth to create positive change.

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A painting by college student Marcus Lee is showcased at the Graffiti Arts Festival, an annual celebration of public art, hip hop, and spoken word at Precita Park in San Francisco.

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Artists Mike Threesixty and Release are touching up Community Rejuvenation Project's "Heart and Mind" mural at Fruitvale Avenue & East 8th Street in Oakland.

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Artists Thomas Christopher Haag and David Polka of Groundscore Collective use reclaimed house paint to create a new mural in the Adam's Point neighborhood of Oakland.

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The mural was commissioned by Uptown Body and Fender, an autobody shop that doubles as an art gallery, during Oakland Art Murmur on the first Friday of every month.

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Located under a highway overpass at San Pablo and 35th Street in Oakland, this piece by the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project, depicts 15-year-old student Umiika Rose as Ja'Khi, a female superhero who is the "princess of knowledge."

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Legendary muralist Ray Patlan teaches a public art class at Laney Community College in Oakland.

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Students in Patlan's class work on a sustainability themed mural they designed for the East Bay Center for Creative Reuse.

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The Precita Community Center in San Francisco was painted under the direction of
Susan Cervantes, a pioneer of the SF community mural art movement since the 1970s.

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Colorful tiles surround a bench in San Francisco's Precita Park where a teenage couple were fatally shot. The memorial was painted by neighborhood youth to promote peace in their community.

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Community Rejuvenation Project founder Desi W.O.M.E. gets ready for a day of painting. Since 2010, his non-profit has created more than 50 murals within the city of Oakland.

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Community Rejuvenation Project works to empower neighborhoods on a hyperlocal level by hosting block parties, community clean up events and installing native plants around public art.

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Mike Threesixty works with six other lead artists to complete the massive three-sided People's Grocery mural in Oakland, which covers more than 3,500 square feet of wall space.

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Release studies a photo of activist Angela Davis, whose portrait is featured with other leaders on the People's Grocery mural.

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Located across the street from a McDonald's restaurant, the finished People's Grocery mural shares potent images of nutrition, farming and water conservation.

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A collection of balls or "peas" from used aerosol spray cans are saved for a future Community Rejuvenation Project mural.

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Richard Felix in ArtisMobilUs, the school bus he converted into a free public art gallery.

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ArtIsMobilUs displays two billboard-size murals on the outside and a walkthrough gallery featuring up-and-coming painters on the inside.

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The Street Mystic Mural Project by Thomas Christopher Haag, David Polka, and Ernest Doty at Classic Cars West during Oakland Art Murmur.

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The "Peace and Dignity" mural in Oakland's Fruitvale district depicts a intercontinental run that takes place every four years to celebrate indigenous spirituality, stories, and songs.

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Students at East Palo Alto Academy brainstorm ideas for a new neighborhood mural with guidance from the Mural Music & Arts Project instructor Sarah Woodward.

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After working at Facebook for five years, Randy DeVaul quit to dedicate himself towards youth instruction and developing programs at the Mural Music & Arts Project.

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The Mural Music & Arts Project has helped students beautify multiple schools in East Palo Alto, including Cesar Chavez Academy.

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Participant of the 2012 Graffiti Arts Fest in San Francisco, hosted by nonprofit arts organization Precita Eyes.

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Precita Eyes offers free paint supplies to young artists in an effort to channel creative expression; they can generate positive community art, rather than illegal property destruction.

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A public mural at the Vulcan Lofts, community for artists in Oakland.

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