Havana to Ventura Mural Project

Time: We will commence painting July1st and work toward the Westside ArtWalk 2015 weekend of July 18 and 19.
Location: 50 W. Main St. Ventura, CA
Description: This mural will be created by MB Hanrahan and Pedro Pulido, with community volunteers, and participants in the Vita Summer Teen programs.  The design will reflect the styles of both community painters, and contains elements shared by both Ventura and Cuban culture-dancing, music, car culture, the ocean and nature.  The design has been developed through image exchange between the artists, and intuition. The mural will be painted with acrylic paint, on concrete, under the direction of the two lead artists.  Art students and community volunteers will be working on the mural as well.


*Thank you to the Addison Family for their participation and support in making this mural a reality.

About The Imagery

Starting with the corner of the wall closest to W. Main St., every 10 feet appears a 12’h x 14’w painted archway that designed to mimic an arch on the building’s façade. These arches will frame 5 scenes. The 10 foot spaces in between the archways are areas for plants, in the eventual development of the area for a parking lot and pedestrian walkway. In front of the first “archway”, or frame, is a vintage 1950’s era car, such as one would see in Cuba.  The background scene is the familiar view of the islands, from the point.  Around the edge of the arch winds the branch of a plant-most likely a poinsettia tree.  A sign states “Art Work Ahead”.  Indigenous Cuban birds sit on the branch. Monarch butterflies flutter about.  

Pedro Pulido favors a figurative style of painting, with figures emerging from an abstract expressionist ground.  Such an abstract flow streams out of the car window, like music from a radio.  This abstract stream continues as the back ground from which all subsequent images emerge from.

The stream is eventually ”captured”, like a transmission, in a conch shell held by a Cuban hand.  It can also be read that the naturally produced shell sound flows out to eventually become the music heard in the Cuban car radio. The imagery thus flows continuously back and forth, no matter how the mural is approached in the last frame.

The car frame is followed by a frame containing 2 monumental dancers. One wears a white dress, which is printed with images of the Channel Islands.   The second dancer’s red dress is printed with an image of the island of Cuba.  These dancers symbolize cultural exchange.

Next is an image of a passion flower, on a vine, with a multicolored butterfly hovering nearby.  This image implies pollination, in nature, and in the arts, as well as huge passion.

The next frame is a beautiful horse, on a cart.  It is revealed to be a “Trojan Horse”- brought into a city as a present.  The saddle is thrown back, the ladder unrolls, and visitors climb out.  This image symbolizes the expectations, the hopes and the unknowns of this collaboration.  A cock crows, announcing….that more will be revealed!

The Hand holding the Conch- the first, or last frame, depending on one’s approach, speaks on several levels.  The conch shell has long been a considered precious, even used as a currency, in African and other countries worldwide. It is a ubiquitous shell, large and small, a migrant’s home. Pedro communicated to us that it is a potent symbol in his work.  I see the hand and shell as a natural and magical transmitter and receiver of the musical/colorful trans-lingual stream that is informing this collaboration.

A shadow of a large tree will be painted on the South end of the wall.

Mural Workshop

Time: Week 1: June 29 - July 3,  9 am - 12 pm
          Week 2: July 6 - July 10,  9 am - 12 pm
Location: Vita Art Center
Cost: $120/week (scholarships available)            
Event description: Instructor: MB Hanrahan. Vita Art Center is pleased to present a one-week mural workshop with visiting Cuban artist, Pedro Miguel Gonzalez Pulido and Ventura artist MB Hanrahan.This is a fantastic opportunity for young artists to work on a large-scale public art project in Ventura. The students will gain hands-on mural painting training- working together as a team; guided through every step of the mural process. Join us in making Art History, creating this cross cultural collaboration. 

Call 805-644-9214 to register