Redwood City Welcomes New Historical Art
City memorializes chrysanthemum industry, commercial past in mural
By Sierra Lopez Daily Journal staff - Sep 1, 2020
Dozens of brightly colored chrysanthemums have blossomed in Redwood City’s Roosevelt Plaza with the work of a San Francisco-based artist tasked with honoring the city’s history of Japanese chrysanthemum growers and commercial enterprises.
“Our inspiration for this mural, in this time of rapid urban development, is for people to have realized Redwood City has a nuanced history. The city has a diverse history we want to bring forward because with that history comes a hope for continuing that legacy, for accepting diverse people and diverse industries,” said Cary Kelly, the director of the Community Advocacy Through Art project, a street art program aimed at educating the public on community issues.
Commissioned by the site owner, the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation and the Redwood City 150th Celebration Committee, the mural was intended to honor either the Redwood Creek, the Japanese chrysanthemum industry, or the various historical buildings located in Redwood City. After successfully including all three elements in his project proposal, Claudio Talavera-Ballon was selected to bring his vision to Roosevelt Plaza.
The nearly 800-foot-mural prominently focuses on the chrysanthemum industry, pioneered by Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s, growing so large the city earned the title of the “chrysanthemum capital of the world.” Talavera-Ballon also sought to immortalize the industry’s growers as a way of paying respect to Japanese Americans placed in internment camps following the World War II bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces.
“When the Redwood City Arts Foundation told me … that they wanted to honor the chrysanthemum industry, I started to research about that and I learned that the Japanese [were the ones] growing chrysanthemums before the war and when the war started they put them in the camps,” said Talavera-Ballon. “I want people to learn about the history of the city, about what happened with the Japanese farmers before the war.”
Much of Talavera-Ballon’s work centers on the experience of immigrants and underserved communities. Some of his most recent work depicts the dangerous journey many caravaners have traveled to get to the United States, riding “La Bestia,” the Spanish name for a series of cargo trains carrying goods into the states. Hummingbirds and butterflies featured in his previous work have made appearances in the mural at 2149 Roosevelt Ave. and are also meant to symbolize migration.
“The hummingbird is a symbol of hope, migration. The old people believe that the hummingbird was the god of nature,” said Talavera-Ballon, a Peruvian-born painter. “And the symbol of the butterfly, when there are flowers there has to be butterflies, another symbol of hope and migration.”
While the hummingbird and butterflies fly among the clusters of chrysanthemums, just behind, two men are depicted rowing down Redwood Creek, a once vital asset to the city’s logging industry. And painted in muted shades of brown, as seen in photographs, is the historic Frank’s Tannery, a major Redwood City-based leather manufacturer of the 1900s. Both it and large portions of the creek are now gone but many residents still hold fond connections to the sites.
“I remember Claudio telling me about having older residents who have lived in Redwood City their whole lives point out historic buildings in the mural and talk about how their family worked in this industry,” said Kelly.
After working on the piece nearly every day for the past two months, Talavera-Ballon shared an appreciation for various comments from passersby who stopped to point out historical buildings or complimented his work. He also shared appreciation for his wife Mariela, a school teacher, who helped provide guidance on the piece’s creation from a distance.
“Mariela is not a painter, but helps me a lot. … She spends her vacations out there with me. … She would mark the mural with a laser and show me where it’s not good or too white. She can see the details and it’s really helpful because when you’re painting a mural up close it’s like painting with your eyes closed. You need a person who can see the mural and tell you what is wrong,” said Talavera-Ballon.
Despite raging fires in the Bay Area and horrible air quality, Talavera-Ballon has continued painting. As the project nears around 90% completion, Kelly said plans are to have some sort of virtual unveiling to honor the project.
“This is the biggest project I’ve worked on alone and it’s been a challenge for me. I’m really excited and want to finish and I’m really happy with my work. It’s amazing to see the mural I made every day,” said Talavera-Ballon.
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Source: The San Mateo Daily