BEAVER MURAL IN THE NEWS

heidi08 Beaver Art October 20, 2018

Finally. Tim Hon’s fantastic mural gets the attention it deserves with a wonderful article in the Gazette. I’m not sure how I missed this, it’s dated last month. My favorite part? The part where it makes it very, very clear I’m not to blame in any way.

Artist’s beaver mural attracts attention

MARTINEZ, Calif. – When artist Tim Hon made his first stroll of Martinez’s downtown area a few years ago, he was impressed. Little did he know the walk would lead to his creating a popular mural on the side of one of its businesses.

And the owner of the business that bears the mural hopes it will help extend the downtown Martinez “renaissance” well past Main Street.

“I was really impressed with how quaint it was, and had so much character compared to surrounding areas,” Hon said about his exploration of his new home town.

Hon is familiar with a place with character. He moved to Martinez from Berkeley, which has a strong vibe of its own.

But Hon’s first trip to Martinez’s downtown took an unexpected turn. “I randomly stumbled upon the beavers in the creek!” he said.

“It was such an amazing experience. I just stood there on the bridge watching them work for a few hours. It was just incredible how they could be here amidst this ‘urban’ area,” he said.

If there’s another city where a graffiti artist randomly happens upon a family of beavers and is inspired to create art, I surely don’t know where it is. And honestly, you don’t either. I’m so glad that this engaging mural is getting the attention it deserves.

The mural is not a commissioned piece, Hon said. “It was done out of my own accord,” he said. Bernard helped out by purchasing the needed materials.

Because the building’s surface of metal and glass wasn’t ideal for a painting, Bernard put up plywood paneling on which Hon could paint.

Those panels serve a dual purpose, he added. “We weren’t sure if the city would accept it or try to remove it,” Hon said. “So we put it on panels in case we needed to move it.”

“I didn’t want to gamble with the painting,” Bernard said.

As Hon was doing preparatory plans for the mural, he learned about the Martinez Beaver Festival June 28 in Susana Park, which highlighted the work of Napa street painter Amy G. Hall, who made a sidewalk mural of a beaver pond in the center of the park.

Hon met with Heidi Perryman, whose Worth a Dam organization started the festival to let residents express their support for the aquatic dam builders that originally were controversial but have become unofficial mascots of the city.

The more Hon learned about the beavers and their festival, the more he wanted to coincide the timing of his mural with the celebration. “So I actually started that mural the day before the Beaver Festival,” he said.

And it wasn’t Heid’s fault. So there. Plus this mural is getting the positive reception it so rightly deserves.

“It turns out it’s unanimously beloved by everybody,” Bernard said. He said Martinez Police’s answer to the lip-synch video challenge may incorporate the mural. He’s heard the painting praised by members of the Martinez Council, and said Mayor Rob Schroder notices it on his daily walks past the building.

And for the artist?

“It was a fun experience, interacting with the public and watching people’s reactions,” Hon said. “And that is really why I do it. Kids especially were so amazed and got so happy.”

Nice! Here’s a little fun fact because we know each other so well. A supporter of Worth A Dam’s child was once a waitress at the breakfast restaurant right across from the mural. Guess who she noticed coming for breakfast every friday morning? That would be the fine mayor of our city and the wealthy property owner who originally threatened to sue the city over the beavers prompting the city to respond by trapping. Such a coincidence! Now their little breakfast cabal can be held in the shadow of a giant beaver mural.

Ahh small towns.

TAGGED

heidi08 Beaver Art August 14, 2018

A few weeks before the beaver festival I was contacted by Tim Hon of Illuminaries who happened to live in Martinez and wanted to create a beaver mural because he had been surprised to see them one night when he first moved in. It was pretty exciting and especially wonderful that it had nothing to do with me and I wasn’t responsible in any way.

Mind you, I asked for one thing. That it look like an actual beaver and not a nutria of woodchuck. I even gave him some photos to work from, and even though our beavers never wore snorkels you can probably see the influence.

He had access to two privately owned places and asked what was involved in getting permission. Even though the approval for our beaver mural took a good number of meetings and several months to finagal, I was able to find out that there was no permit needed for private property in city limits.

The other property he was considering turned out to be on unincorporated land and the county of contra costa said they needed a permit costing 2500 dollars to paint it!

Thus, this little mural on the side of a ancient gas station was born. It just happens to be right across from the Copper Skillet, where I’m told the mayor has breakfast sometimes. I didn’t make him do it or try to stop it. Tim admitted he was a graffiti artist at heart, so doing things was easier for him than getting permission anyway,

He started it the day of the festival and just now finished the ice cream. Doesn’t it just make you happy? Tim cameby the festival afterwards and was very impressed to watch Amy’s temporary chalk creation, which I thought was fun. Bonus points! When our beavers moved upstream their interim lodge was in the creek right next to this property. And when I was in 7th grade I organized a car wash at this gas station to pay for a birthday cake for our beloved band teacher.

Long live the snorkling beaver!

My interview yesterday on BYU radio was fun and very polite. Marcus Smith started it off by saying Heidi Perryman of Worth A – oh goodness I need to swear on the radio – dam. He let me tell the story the way I wanted. Marcus seemed genuinely pleased that I was a civilian and asked a whether being a child psychologist helped me plan the festivals or fight the city, which I liked very much because people don’t usually act like it has anything to do with it. They were going to talk to Ben Goldfarb later in the day. I think I did okay, it will air in a couple weeks and I’ll give you the link then. The only odd part was that the host and his helpers were so polite – letting me say as much or little as I wanted – that sometimes I wasn’t totally sure they were paying attention and not, you know, checking their nails or something,

I’m from California for pete’s sake, I wanted to say, I’m used to more pressure!

REFLECTIONS ON THE WATER

heidi08 Festival July 2, 2018

Over the years I’ve learned that every beaver festival has a different mood or vibe. Nothing is permanent and everything changes. Some seem full of children, some seem full of impatient parents and some are packed with die-hard martinez beaver defenders. This one seemed thick with passionate naturalists. Many younger and older adults who were drawn by the movie, the book, or the promise of learning more. The adult-heavy crowd meant that fewer children completed the sticker program this year but the ones that did clearly loved it. One child in particular collected all the stickers but patiently kept them because she wanted to put them on herself, carefully, at home.

There were still plenty of children though, fully engaged and eager. Here’s the proof:

I don’t think its possible to over-emphasize how meaningful it was to Amy in the middle creating such a magically wild world. It was a constant reminder to everyone there that in a very real way we are all responsible every day for the nature around us, and for the wilderness we allow underfoot. Once when Suzanne Fouty asked Amy if she minded how temporary all her work was, and how subject to erosion, Amy said that’s actually what she loves about chalk art.

It was a constant reminder to “Live in the moment“.

And what a moment it was! I called our child winners of the raffle yesterday who were so excited to be chosen! 28 children completed the post test and 19 of those got the answers correct. (Many were thrown by the idea that humans were ‘animals’ too.) Today we’ll send off the beaver puppets as a reward for the winners hard work, Then we can focus on closing out the remaining silent auction items. There are about 25 transactions left to complete.

This was one of my favorite parts of the mural. I’m so fond of the ripples made on the water by beaver movements, To my way of thinking they’re kind of like a living dynamic canvas that constantly records his/her movements on the watery medium..

Of course there were other favorite parts. The exciting myriad of bees and ladybugs. The curling and popular snakes. The glorious peregrine and the constantly evolving musicians.

But the famed beaver mobile remains a perennial favorite of young and old alike. My engineer brother in law was fascinated and wanted to know at once how it worked.

There was one last amazing thing that happened on July 30th and it had nothing what so ever to do with Worth A Dam or the beaver festival. Illuminaries artist Tim Hon created this downtown about three blocks away from the park on ferry street. The talented graffiti artist known for his promient Oakland Warriors pieces happens to live in Martinez, and wanted to memorialize the beavers he personally watched with fascination when he moved here.