An Iraq War veteran is leading Hollister artists in painting a mural that celebrates the service of local, living veterans.
Hollister resident Phillip Orabuena served as a Marine in the Iraq War and he teamed up with friends to paint images of service and home into a 105-foot-long mural on a Park Hill retaining wall at Third and Monterey streets. The painting chronicles a man’s journey through enlistment and war before showing him ride off on a motorcycle into the Hollister hills at sunset.
“I wanted to put something that can honor those who serve – not necessarily those who pass but all those that served from San Benito County, so they can come see and enjoy it,” Orabuena said.
Given the recent developments in Iraq, Orabuena has mixed emotions about finishing the project he proposed earlier this year. People driving by the mural often roll down the window to compliment the painters. Some ask why the muralists are creating the work now and whether they’ve been watching the news.
“It kind of sucks that it looks like we’ll have to go back (to Iraq),” Orabuena said. “It’s to honor the vets from San Benito County that served, but at the same time we’re representing something that we didn’t fix.”
Orabuena approached Councilman Ray Friend about the project earlier this year. Friend asked the American Legion Riders Chapter 69 – a motorcycle group that raises money and awareness for veterans’ causes – if they would sponsor the mural. The group donated $350 for materials, and Orabuena is reimbursing his friends out of pocket for the rest of the paint and material costs.
The city council approved the mural at a meeting in early June, and Orabuena got right to work. Just a day after the mural’s approval, he and his friends were prepping the wall for painting, when police arrived. The artists didn’t have paperwork explaining they were working on a city beautification project, so the police thought they were tagging the wall.
“The word hadn’t got out to the police yet,” Friend said with a laugh. “The bad part is poor Phillip almost got arrested.”
Three weekends later – with at least several hundred hours of painting – the mural is almost complete. The orange-yellow sunset is painted. So is a plane, dog tags and images of Hollister landscapes. Only the work’s protagonist remains unfinished. In one section, he is painted holding the hand of a little boy. In others, he is still a pencil sketch.
The wall held a mural at least once before, but that was nearly five years ago and the work was much smaller, Friend said.
“It didn’t encompass the whole wall like this one did, and after about three years it just faded away,” he said.
This time, the artists purchased a sealer that is supposed to last 10 years, Friend said. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be this week, just in time for the Hollister Motorcycle Rally, though there was no specific time as of Tuesday.
