Artists are putting their finishing touches on the five utility boxes being painted to enhance the downtown’s public art scene.
David Gutierrez was painting the utility box at Fifth and San Benito streets, outside The Vault building, on Sunday along with Victoria Murray. Gutierrez, painting a biker-related theme, mentioned how the projects are supposed to be done by the end of the month. That would get them completed before thousands of bikers come to downtown Hollister for the motorcycle rally July 3-5.
Hollister council members voted in December to put $4,000 toward supplies and artist stipends for a project that celebrates culture and deters graffiti by putting murals on five downtown municipal utility boxes. The arts council is acting as the project’s fiscal sponsor and added an additional $1,500 to cover stipends for assistant artists.
The five boxes show the farmers market, the rodeo, the biker rally, a traditional Mexican dance called the “ballet folklorico,” and scenes from San Juan Bautista writer Luis Valdez’s La Bamba movie.
Each panel of a box takes about 50 hours to paint, making completion of a single box a roughly 200-hour undertaking. The finished art receives a special sealant, which protects against graffiti and means only the top layer will be sacrificed if someone vandalizes the work.
