A Splash of Color
The 2022 San Miguel Mural Unveiled
ANOTHER ACADEMIC YEAR has come and gone and with it another mural on the San Miguel Stage. There are four murals at all times and each year one is rotated out to keep the artwork fresh and alive. This is our seventh mural since Andrea Vargas, former Marketing & Social Media Assistant, first worked with the Residential Housing Association (RHA) and a student artist to bring art to our community. This year, the environment-themed mural was replaced and former art student Loni Marineau’s powerful whale piece moved south to Orange County. Loni graduated from UCSB in 2018, married her high school sweetheart, and has become an environmental studies high school teacher. She asked for the mural to be returned to her so she could hang it in her classroom after four years on campus. It was one of our favorites and became the cover of our 2016-17 Annual Report.
The replacement mural is another powerfully bright and energetic piece by Riechal “Riqui” Zonelysse Paras Martinez, a sophomore who lived with us in Anacapa Residence Hall last year. It really needs to be seen and ‘experienced’ and is well worth a trip over to the stage. In her words…
“Though divided, humans will always share one thing, the environment. Our environment is constantly changing, revolving around our senses, perceived in a completely different perspective from the next person. It’s an individual experience, yet a space in which we all coexist and create communities within.
Our senses compile a blend of multiple stimuli, to where, these abilities, can at times, be suffocating. Through the nose we can see the inhalation of smoke, heavy vapors from the burning mountains, the tongue littered with lost lives, a rough terrain fought over and only to be held still in the emptiness of the piece by the teeth. Constricted. Yet in the eyes, we trail to the moon, but a reflection of the sun behind. And, we forget that this is just a disfigured depiction of a person, their perception of the world around them as it evolves and becomes more vibrant the more they dive within. It’s just one person, yet it's a place we all share. A place of passion, of blended cultures melted between one another, where clashing ideals meet. Our environment.”
A week before our deadline in January we only had two submissions. We (the HDAE Arts & Culture Committee) worried if this would be the first year without a mural. With Omicron surging and students forced to remain at home for the first few weeks of the winter quarter, things had once again ground to a standstill. The previous year, in the midst of the pandemic, our student artist was able to take her mural home to Northern California and paint it during the shutdown.
And then, all of a sudden, eight more submissions came in right at the deadline and we were a go. All were worthy of consideration but Riqui’s colorful piece stood out to all on the committee. She began work once our Residential Operations Team were able to get the panels framed and secured in the Anacapa main lounge.
Our videographer extraordinaire, Carol Hirashima, documented Riqui’s process and her artistic journey. By mid-June her concept had become a reality and Danny Mann’s incredible maintenance team had it installed in a week. With a wave goodbye to the whales, another school year was over.
Author's note: this will be my final article for the newsletter as I am retiring this summer. It feels like the closing of another circle as I began working with the Homefront Newsletter when I first started in Housing & Residential Services in 1998. I had just gotten a casual position in H&RS Information Systems (pre-ARIT) and was doing desktop and network support. In addition to my day-to-day duties, I volunteered with the newsletter committee submitting image collages and other graphic pieces as needed. I eventually was hired as the department’s graphic artist in 1999.
After Andrea Vargas left UCSB, the project floated for a bit because no one was quite sure how to keep it going. It is a labor of love and involves a fair amount of work and organization. It ended up falling in my lap as chair of the HDAE Arts & Culture Committee and I remember having mixed feelings about it at the time. Like many things in life… here I am 28+ years later and I can say it has come to be one of the most rewarding projects I have been associated with in my career at UCSB. Working with incredible, excited, and passionate student artists has been a joy and we have had some really fun and talented works of art as a result. And equally rewarding has been forging partnerships in the department to make it happen each year as it takes a village to pull together. Julie Levangie and I have been a team for a long time and her outstanding advertising skills have garnered more and more student interest in submitting artwork each year. Danny Mann has been a pleasure to work with and a big part of corralling all the details of making the behind-the-scenes pieces happen. Getting the old art removed and repainted, lights for the artist to work at night, drop cloths, on and on. EJ Langworthy’s incredible welding talents are evident in the mural framework; and out of nowhere he created a giant easel for the artists to work on. It alone is a work of art. Caesar Martinez and Ishmael Carranza’s crew of painters prepare the wood for paint application and then add a coat of anti-graffiti lacquer when it's all finished. I think we all take a little bit of pride in the end. Not to mention giving student art back to the community. Thanks, Andrea…. and thanks to all!