www.montereycountynow.com JULY 31-AUGUST 6, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 hen Pope Julius II ordered him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Michelangelo was everything but psyched. First, he thought himself a sculptor, not a painter. Second, he fully understood the pressure—the frescoes had to not only please the pope, but to keep inspiring the conclave, the body of cardinals that gathers in the chapel each time a new pope is to be chosen. The frescoes had to demonstrate the power of God, the power of his kingdom on Earth, but above all they had to create a sense of unity and solidarity necessary to pick a new leader. Frescoes are only one type of what we today call murals; the mural family includes mosaics (created from tiny pieces, such as tiles, glass or pebbles), graffiti and marouflage (affixing a painted canvas to a wall, using glues). The English word “mural” is derived from the Latin “muralis” and means “wall painting.” We classify as murals cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic, interior decorations of the Romanesque period, frescoes from the Renaissance to Rococo and, finally, contemporary murals. The latter are closely associated with a revival of large wall painting in Mexico and Latin America done by 20th-century artists such as Diego Rivera in Mexico (one of “Los Tres Grandes,” alongside José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros), Pedro Nel Gómez in Colombia and Teodoro Núñez Ureta in Peru. Since then, cities around the world have picked up murals as the most attractive, eye-catching, crowd-pleasing form of public art. In the U.S., Philadelphia, with its 4,000 murals, has been proclaimed the ultimate capital of murals, but the trend has been huge all over the world, from Mexico City to Berlin to Melbourne. The largest concentration of murals in California—600 pieces—is in the predominantly Latino Mission District in San Francisco. In Monterey County, the mural capital is Salinas, with its 80-percent Latino population and at least 100 murals all over town, many of them recent additions. And this is just a beginning—there’s appetite for more murals, with many actors, such as Salinas City Center Improvement Association, United Way Monterey County, the Arts Council for Monterey County (Arts4MC) and Artists Ink pushing to find new walls to cover and locating funds to pay artists. That’s with particular reasoning in mind. Not far from Salinas, tiny Sand City works hard to attract tourists, packing its walls with murals made every year during the We.Mural festival by artists from all over the world. In contrast, Salinas’ murals are primarily by locals and for locals. Their subject matter is devoted to local issues, their locations are picked purposely—to serve people of Salinas, to assure them of their identity as an agricultural community and even to protect them, casting light and color on particular streets and locations. There is no better place for a mural than a back alley that suddenly is given back to the community as a safe space, where people gather to talk, take selfies or choose to walk down on their way back from work. There’s nothing that improves morale better than a well-maintained mural that says: This city, this alley belongs to someone; they are watching and they care. ••• Salinas murals are not concentrated in one location; don’t expect to see them just by walking along Main Street. Even in downtown, they hide on the back walls of the buildings or in alleys off bigger streets. Many are made at and for schools, serving those specific communities. Some are indoors, in stairwells of buildings enjoyed by those who don’t take the elevator. Many of them are painted far from the city center, like a series on Highway 101 underpasses in the Alisal neighborhood; Caltrans sponsored Facing page, top: Located in Midtown Lane, this mural depicts Youth Salinas Orchestra (YOSAL) musicians and was painted by artist Amy Burkman. Facing page, bottom: Details from the We Can Do It! mural depicting Rosie the Riveter. Located at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) hall, it was painted by a group of muralists under the label “One Voice—Arts & Leadership Program.” Right: The fox mural on the back of Fox Theater was painted by artist Lisa Haas with a team in a two-week period in 2025. Below right: A strawberry recently painted by John Cerney for the Nunes Company on Highway 68, in a long tradition of agricultural marketing artwork. Salinas is the mural capital of Monterey County, with free, public art adorning walls all over town. By Agata Popęda JOHN CERNEY DANIEL DREIFUSS
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