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.
Artists Mike Threesixty and Release are touching up Community Rejuvenation Project's "Heart and Mind" mural at Fruitvale Avenue & East 8th Street in Oakland.
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.
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."
Legendary muralist Ray Patlan teaches a public art class at Laney Community College in Oakland.
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.
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.
Located across the street from a McDonald's restaurant, the finished People's Grocery mural shares potent images of nutrition, farming and water conservation.
Richard Felix in ArtisMobilUs, the school bus he converted into a free public art gallery.
Students at East Palo Alto Academy brainstorm ideas for a new neighborhood mural with guidance from the Mural Music & Arts Project instructor Sarah Woodward.
Participant of the 2012 Graffiti Arts Fest in San Francisco, hosted by nonprofit arts organization Precita Eyes.
