Mural adds a splash of color to Maddux Jewelry building
Drive along Fairview Road, or through the Buena Vista or
Southside areas, and San Benito County’s springtime signature
announces itself.
Mural adds a splash of color to Maddux Jewelry building
Drive along Fairview Road, or through the Buena Vista or Southside areas, and San Benito County’s springtime signature announces itself.
Apricot orchards are springing into bloom, dark, gnarled branches improbably festooned with white and pink blossoms, set off by a carpet of brilliantly blooming mustard underneath.
Or, save yourself the trouble.
A new mural emerging alongside an alleyway just off San Benito Street will depict the same vista – available to passersby not just for a few weeks in March, but year round.
Santa Cruz County artist Carol Ann Huboi and partner David Hassell are working on the first of two new murals planned to brighten downtown Hollister. Less than a week after setting to work, the mural in Wentz Alley, on the exterior wall of Maddux Jewelry, appears nearly finished. It depicts a cloud-dappled sky over an apricot orchard just bursting into bloom. A barrow bearing a fruit box rests in the foreground.
Apparently, it only appears nearly finished to those with a less aesthetically developed eye than an artist.
“Oh no, it’s at least a month away from completion,” confirmed Sharlene Van Rooy of the San Benito County Arts Council. The council, along with the Hollister Downtown Association, selected two murals for downtown walls. The second, yet-to-be-started project will cover a wall on the historic Grangers’ Union Building, just off San Benito Street between Sixth and Seventh streets in Brown’s Alley. The artwork will be visible just outside the windows of Main Street Bistro.
That project is the work of Gavilan College students, under the direction of instructor Arturo Rosette. Students designed a scene reminiscent of a fruit box label, a depiction of bounty under the rays of a bright sun.
Standing atop her scaffold last week, Huboi talked about her project. Even as the mural changes downtown Hollister just a bit, it also may change Huboi. Dressed in painter’s whites splashed in a rainbow of colors, Huboi daubed paint on the stucco wall. She said she recently completed a master’s degree leading toward an educational career. But this project is proving so compelling that she may try to blend public art and education after she finishes this project.
In a way, Huboi’s project is a historic display.
The royal Blenheim apricot is perhaps San Benito County’s signature crop. Smaller than many other apricot varieties, it is valued for its rich flavor, deep color and high sugar content. Dried, it is the Ultimate Apricot. Comparing it to the shrunken, pale fruit imported from Turkey in supermarkets is like comparing Sneaky Pete to an aged Bordeaux. There is precious little to compare.
But market pressures – and those vile Turkish interlopers – are exerting their toll on the royal Blenheim that helped put San Benito County on the map. In 1941, 4,850 acres of San Benito County burst into bloom each spring, and the July breezes were scented with the perfume of apricots. Today, the county agricultural commissioner’s office reports fewer than 987 acres devoted to apricots.
The scene should invoke a special nostalgia among many local residents. A generation ago, cutting sheds scattered around the edges of Hollister were filled with children and families, slicing apricots in half and arranging them on trays to dry in the sun. Only a few yards are left, but for those whose summers were spent collecting school money in the dry yards, the mural is a touchstone.
The murals were funded through a Community Development Block Grant from the city of Hollister. The selection process took more than six months.
