With long, periwinkle-colored hair, Hollister resident Joel Esqueda looked the part of the artist as he brushed yellow paint across the drab city utility box.
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.
“They’re very vibrant,” said Jennifer Laine, executive director of the San Benito County Arts Council. “They kind of have this great California muralist esthetic but then they have these local references.”
The arts council is acting as the project’s fiscal sponsor and added an additional $1,500 to cover stipends for assistant artists and to hire Esqueda’s partner to plan a phase two of the project.
Esqueda, 27, and his boyfriend Rolan Resendiz, 35, had long envisioned murals on the city boxes but took the first steps to make it happen after the mayor sent out a call for public art via Facebook last year. Esqueda was going to school for a bachelors’ degree in visual and public art so they met Mayor Ignacio Velazquez the next day to discuss ideas.
Thursday of last week was the first day their paint hit the boxes. In the afternoon, Esqueda brushed pale-yellow pigment across a gray box near the Quik Stop gas station on the corner of Santa Ana and San Felipe roads.
“Oh, cool. You guys are gonna paint that thing,” said one passerby that day. “Right on.”
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 famous La Bamba movie.
Esqueda and Resendiz were inspired by painted utility boxes in nearby Gilroy, Capitola and Santa Cruz, but the trend to put murals on public utility boxes is catching on in other areas.
“This is international,” Resendiz said. “They’re doing this worldwide.”
Each panel of a box takes about 50 hours to paint, making completion of a single box a roughly 200-hour undertaking.
The mural team consists of three lead artists, about 10 assistants and volunteers with varying art experience.
“There’s not that much public art here,” Esqueda said. “It’s just appropriate with my degree that I’d finally pursue that.”
While Esqueda is the muralist, his partner Resendiz is developing a plan to ensure the project continues even if additional works won’t be sponsored with city funds.
“After we have these five boxes, we only have 10 more city-owned boxes,” Resendiz said.
The next phase of the project will involve allowing local businesses to sponsor murals so the work can continue without municipal funding.
“I think it’s going to really help with the tourism aspect,” Resendiz said. “I bet all kinds of people are going to be taking pictures in front of them for the biker rally.”
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.
Esqueda took a few steps back to admire his work.
“Looks good, babe,” Resendiz said. “It’s cute.”
“Thanks,” Esqueda said.
To learn how to volunteer as a painter or to find out more about the project, go to facebook.com/groups/2014utilityboxmuralpilotproject or post your own photos of the progress with on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag: #hollisterboxart.
