SECTION SIX
This panel portrays the values and people that can lead us to a positive future.
INDEX for this page – click where you want to go or just scroll down.
- Giants of nature: redwoods and the Pacific Ocean
- Specific and meaningful – the first portraits
- Architecture – the boy with a blueprint, circular blocks, cool building downtown!
- Edie loves books; my assistant Maddie is a 6-year-old
- Community – people interwoven over place and time
- Kids doing their thing and a boy with his duck
- What’s with the bees??
- Mother and child and monarch butterflies
- Native elder blessing this space
- The G5 – a real conversation!
- Teenager asleep in a pasture with his bull?
- Native Student Alliance
- Brothers and sisters and the first day of school
- Guardian the search and rescue dog
- Mycelium and the foundation of everything
Children are the future and they are numerous here! This double-wide panel is a mini-mural in its own right, with 46 portraits including 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 bull and a duck.
It also contains a housing development, intelligent insects and the network of communication that runs through healthy soil. Let’s start at the top, with universal values that nourish a healthy community:
- equality
- tradition
- vision
- honesty
- compassion
- respect
- peace
- freedom
The sun circle was traced around the lid of a paint gallon.
Nature
The sun is shown setting over the Pacific Ocean to the west, which though miles from Ukiah has always exerted a strong influence on the region, from weather to salmon, from trade to tourism.
Majestic redwoods are icons of the Mendocino coast with valley mist flowing east along rivers and low areas, allowing inland redwood groves to thrive. The Russian River flows through Ukiah gaining in breadth all the way to the Pacific at Jenner. Salmon swim upstream to spawn, appearing under the log of a fallen giant, representing a healthy ecosystem:
Who are these children walking carefully across the creek on that log?
Subject matter can be:
- generic (I could make them up)
- or random (I could google “five kids on a log”)
- or specific and meaningful. That’s what I choose!
Specific and Meaningful
Laura Fogg is a local fabric artist who was a driving force behind this project. Plus she let me stay in her house during the first two years of painting! These are her grandchildren Ash, Sonja, AJ, Orion, and Lucca, wearing tie-dyed shirts and skirts they created themselves. (Source photo below on the right.)
They represent harmony with nature (salmon are swimming right under them) and cooperation, looking out for each other as they cross the slippery log.
That log links the forest with the town, which must be done in a sustainable way if we are to have a healthy future. Look at the boy sitting near the roots of the tree. His name is Valentino and he holds a blueprint to sustainable development.
I became friends with Valentino and his father Sean “Beau” DeVito during my years of work on the mural. Valentino loves maps and will pick a street to explore on paper and then in real life with his dad. He modeled as the young architect/builder/visionary.
Architecture
I wanted to paint the housing we need (throughout California!) but how? My background as Point Arena City Council member and Mayor helped.
Then I visited the innovative local architectural firm Ruff + Associates. I was intrigued with their 13 ft.-wide (not a typo) 4-story (also not a typo) earthquake-reinforced structure nestled between older buildings in the 100 block of W. Standley Street downtown. Richard Ruff and designer Jill Petersen gave me the tour. I loved the practical but also beautiful aesthetic where structural elements were allowed to be visible rather than always covered in drywall! See more below.
All of this, and a brainstorm session with my son Adrian, inspired me to develop an ambitious three-part vision:
- Hillside Solar Houses
- Circle Village
- Standley Street, an example of old and new
Look first at the houses on the hill.
Hillside Solar Houses are small, efficient, affordable 2-story homes with a single-pitch roof slanted up southward to receive passive solar sun and a one-story extension in front with its roof slanted down at the perfect angle for solar panels. Imagine all of that natural light and free solar heat streaming into your front picture windows during winter. The length of the roof’s overhang prevents too much sun shining in during the summer months when it is higher in the sky. Clerestory windows just under the roof line open to allow hot air inside to rise and escape. There is access on the second floor to a little balcony the width of the house, from which you can easily clean your windows and the solar panels below. The solar panel roof extends to the east creating a carport. A rain catchment system feeds into a container behind the house.
Circle Village is a housing development with 6 circular blocks, each having twelve homes arranged in a ring, facing inward. The streets are connecting circles, with short driveways leading to the back of the house and garage.
The front of these homes would have large windows and open onto a common area. Kids could burst out of their front doors onto an expanse of green, rather than into the street and passing cars. The zones between the rings would have a baseball diamond and play ground. On the perimeter are a community garden, neighborhood grocery store, cafe, pizza place, restaurant and small shops.
The 100 block of W. Standley Street in Ukiah is not imaginary. It showcases the principle of preserving and maintaining historic buildings when possible while integrating new construction that is efficient and well-built. That principle is gloriously illustrated by the Ruff + Associates architectural office located between older structures. Astonishingly, it is 4 stories tall and measures just 13 feet wide!
One day while I was painting, the Conference Center hosted an architectural seminar and Richard Ruff and his associate Rob Fox were in attendance, seen here with a colleague.
They came out to see what I had come up with after visiting their superbly designed building on Standley Street. I am happy to say, Richard gave a thumbs up!
Before we get back to all the people, let me show you a few process shots.
What’s Phil doing?
I had cut my oval patterns for Circle Village out of the Co-op Beet magazine, which happened to have the perfect image of a foreshortened pizza on the cover.
The pre-cut patterns just need to be traced on the wall
String extended from the vanishing point of the perspective creates the diagonal lines of the architecture. Now let’s get back to all the people who populate the panel!
The next group of kids demonstrate expanding your world through curiosity and books, creativity and self-confidence.
You’ve already met Valentino holding his blueprint. Now meet more young stars in this show. Who is that girl reading, absorbed in her book?
This is Edie who I had met with her Grandmother Tracy Schultz who told me how much she loved to read. This was perfect for a vision of an ideal future: a child expanding her world through books.
Reading is such a large part of being a modern human. Writing lets humanity preserve knowledge on a grand scale and reading (for pleasure or education) lets us gain access to that information or to creative work.
Edie and her dad Dusty came by to see the portrait, and she approved!
The girl painting a painting in the painting is Maddie, who at the age of six, became my assistant on a multi-mural job I had in her family’s business, the Dalistan Care Home.
Maddie was serious and efficient. She didn’t only help get things ready so I could paint. She painted a special section of dots herself! Those are her dots above the red roses in the Evening Garden mural.
Community – people interwoven over place and time
The first photo below is Emma Peng, a child in Taiwan in 1992 (her name is 彭翠俞 in Mandarin.) Then Indra Knoles, a boy who who lives in Ukiah now. Then Caitlin Linden from about 1995 in Texas.
Kenoa and Yahzira Kent are siblings living here now. Why did I include portraits from the past and from places far from Ukiah? In a panel about the future, no less!
Because they illustrate the interweaving of our lives through space and time. Caitlin and her brother Adrian (my younger son) grew up in Texas but he now lives in Ukiah and she has come to California as well. Trained at Second City in Chicago, she is an actor and a comedian in LA. Emma is now the wife of my other son Ian.
People who are continents apart may come together at another time, and individuals separated in time can be connected by one place. The fabric of a community is woven of these many threads.
When I asked children how they would like to be portrayed, they often said, “With my cat!” Kenoa and Yahzira, the children of Dartanta Kent and mom Chelsea Sandelin (of the Palace Hotel family) and Indra, the son of Krishan Knoles, are painted with their beloved black cats.
In another time twist, I painted Emma with the little white dog Niu Niu, who she loved so much as an adult. Now look at more kids (and a dog and a duck) in this group:
The standing girl is Millie, the first child I promised to paint in the mural. It was four years before I got to the panel, but neither of us ever forgot. I knew her grandma and parents from Rivino Winery which was always super welcoming to families and kids. This is a more grown-up Millie with her family and posing for the mural.
Millie exemplified happy enthusiasm, composure and self-confidence.
She represents young people learning, playing, growing up within their families and coming into their own. Next to her is a boy in a martial arts uniform. This is Julian dressed in his Aikido jacket, demonstrating the pose struck at the beginning of a match.
Julian and his dad, Omar Mollinedo, demonstrate how the wrap-around Aikido jacket is belted:
Now let’s look at the boy with a duck. This is Cord Phenicie, who I learned had asked to be in the mural for his birthday! Cord and his mom Kylie brought me a photo of him with Alice, his pet duck:
The girl next to Cord is Mia Knight. She is the grand-daughter of my friend Karen Christopherson who was a great supporter of the mural project. (She let me stay in the apartment at her home for two years!) Karen’s beloved husband was the painter and professor M. Wayne Knight, whose son Matisse is Mia’s dad. They live in Germany, so Mia’s portrait illustrates those interwoven strands of community across space and time.
Mia is portrayed with a gorgeous American Indian Dog Shenanigans, who had traveled to Ukiah from Colorado with his human Adrienne. I painted him because of his beauty and my love of dogs, but he also illustrates the importance of visitors to our community. And Mia approved when she came to visit Karen again.
What’s with the bees?
Bees are incredibly important pollinators and insure the biodiversity of a healthy world. When one bee finds good food, she flies back to the hive and performs the Waggle Dance in the shape of a figure-8. Her movements convey to other bees the distance, direction, and quality of a resource.
Recent discoveries have shown bees’ communication through dance is universal across sub-species and landscapes! See more here.
Mother and child and Monarch butterflies
The beautiful timeless image of a mother nursing her child had to be part of the vision for our future! It has long been an iconic subject for me and one day in September a passing mother nursing her child reminded me of that. She is Lee McClellan (and baby Kayah) who live off grid in the mountains of Potter Valley. She modeled then and there.
Lee and Kayah came back to see the completed image (on Kayah’s first birthday!) and liked the Monarch butterflies painted near her, representing another aspect of life on our planet.
Monarch butterflies are important pollinators crucial to our connected future and I painted them feeding on milkweed, their only food source in the caterpillar stage.
The mother and child and the blessing man create a meaningful symbolic presence of male and female energy, radiating and interconnected.
Native blessing
Mar/Tan Martinez is a respected Native leader whose ceremonial work centers on creating space where we can honor who we are and leave unhelpful baggage behind. He is called upon to cleanse gatherings with his eagle feather and abalone shell.
Mar/Tan graciously consented to appear in the mural’s final panel.
He came to pose on a hot summer day. He made clear that during an actual ceremony he would be more formal, wearing long pants.
My thinking was that this deliberate setting forth of a zone of respect was what we need to speak our truth and listen to each other.
He instructed me to use the four colors that represent all people – red, black, yellow, and white – emerging from the blessing feather. These bands of color weave through the entire width of the panel, finally flowing down into the living earth at the lower right.
The far end of Mar/Tan’s band of colors representing all people, as it curves over the groups of people, then to the right and down into the earth alive with mycelium.
The G5
Look at the five adults under the colored band in the middle of the panel. This diverse group came about because of an idea relating to communication.
The future panel needed to feature expressing one’s truth and listening, respectful interaction and fun!
I could paint five different people each posing separately from five different photos. But I got the idea to invite the five people to the mural for real interaction! I called them the G5 and thought this would make the image more authentic.
I asked a lot of people who to include in the G5. I wanted men and women of different ages, types of work, racial and cultural backgrounds. A group in whom most viewers could see something they could relate to. It was a success! They are:
- Chatnaree Upton – Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Mendocino College
- Michael Hunter – Tribal Chair of Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians
- Juan Orozco – Ukiah City Councilmember (former Mayor) and educator
- Troyle Tognoli – Rehabilitation Specialist (retired) at HHSA Mendocino County
- Ian Morris – Construction professional, attended Ukiah High and stayed in town
I hope their group portrait expresses authentic communication: listening and speaking, thinking and having fun. See more about them here:
Now please consider the figures to the right of the G5. Who’s that young man sleeping on the shoulder of a bull?
This is Paul Poulos, retired veterinarian, and long-time director of the Mendocino County Historical Society. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Greece and his father Paul Poulos Sr. was a former champion wrestler. Paul Sr. and his brother Tom Poulos started The Maple Confectionary – a bakery and cafe – in 1922 in the Marks Building (where Ukiah Brewing Company is now). It was well situated across from the courthouse and at the main downtown bus stop. Paul worked in the family business, but his parents worked there even more.
The family had moved to Potter Valley and Paul and his brother John were on their own a lot. How did they stay busy? When Paul was a Junior at Ukiah High School and his brother in middle school, they bought a dairy farm across the road! They had saved up the money and their father had to cosign. They soon were working as many as 40 cows.
They also bought a bull as a calf, from the Mendocino State Hospital for the Insane, which had gardens, a farm, and a breeding program. Resident August Nerple advised Paul on all the calves and they chose one named Guafton Rag Apple Liberator. Really.
That’s when Paul decided to become a vet.
See the figures in progress with source photos.
My son Adrian who is tall and slim, just like Paul, posed for his position of lounging on the shoulder of his bull.
Paul loved his bull and Guafton loved him back. They would go out in the field after milking and lie down for a nap, Paul resting on Guafton’s shoulder with his feet in the ditch where timed irrigation water would flow down at a certain point and wake him up. This story had to be in the mural!
Paul Poulos served in the Navy during the Korean War, earned his veterinary degree at UC Davis and practiced in Ukiah for 11 years. Fascinated by radiology, he ent back to Davis to be certified as a veterinary radiologist. He then worked and studied in Sweden and Holland, got his Ph.D., and returned to Ukiah to retire.
Who are the teenagers grouped right beneath Guafton and Paul? They are members of the Native Student Alliance at South Valley High School, which is part of the Big Picture alternative education program and is just a couple blocks from the mural.
The students visited with their dynamic teacher Kirsten Turner. Let me introduce you to Bonnie Connaley, Amanda Ortega, Patricia Treppa, and Lunhkya James in the back row; Mercy Ruiz, Daniel Villegas, and Miranda Ashurst (friend of the NSA members) in the front. Jayda Perez in the photo above is a member who couldn’t come the day I took their photo, but I hope to include her in a future project.
Big Picture’s focus on student-interest-driven, real-world learning is based on the belief that students learn best when school is relevant to their lives. See more here. And these kids were activists, in the world and in their lives. As an example, Mercy and Miranda were involved in the Kadhija Britton mural raising awareness about missing Indigenous women. This is education based on:
- Relationships, one person at a time
- Relevance, to student interests and real-world learning experiences
- Rigor, with assessment based on professional standards
Brothers and Sisters
Just below the Native teens are a sister and brother painted on his first day of school: Colton and Cosette, who came by frequently with their Grandma Marilyn Johnson.
They came by a lot, ran races, and brought me the drawings I had assigned them the day before. See them arrive on the day they posed:
I met Elizabeth Macias when she was working in the Conference Center making food during the pandemic.
Illustrating the strength of family are my portraits of her children Brian, Alexandra and baby Sofia.
Brian is taking good care of his sisters. Notice “The First Day of School” written on Colton’s back-pack. I painted Cosette in her favorite dress and pink shoes!
Guardian
Who is that big beautiful dog next to them? This is Guardian, a magnificent search and rescue dog who was on the eve of retirement. I met him with his owner Lisa Holcomb. Together they work for the Mendocino County Sheriff.
Together they have carried out many searches, and demonstrated one for me right there on Church Street! She had Guardian smell her young family member’s sandal and then the boy went to hide. Lisa gave Guardian the order to search and showed him the shoe. After some distraction on the busy street, Guardian easily found the boy!
Guardian’s portrait in the future together panel illustrates that amazing relationship between humans and dogs, which has been such a gift to both species.
Now look at the kids below Guardian, portraits #45 and #46.
Another brother and sister
Meet Forrest and Elizabeth!
After work, their dad Javier Moreno would give his wife Brittney a break and take the kids for bike rides on Church Street where I was painting.
They were friends of X, one of the break dancing brothers in panel 19 creativity and he gave me a great photo of Elizabeth holding Forrest up with her hands supporting his knees, and his hands on her knees. This acrobatic move is what you see in the mural:
Mycelium and the foundation of everything
One more thing in the panel, something we may often ignore, is the living earth beneath our feet. Beautiful (and medicinal) turkey tail fungus emerges from decomposing wood and soil. This is the part that you see…
The mushroom is the fruiting body of the mycelium underneath, a network of thin threads called hyphae that literally connects plants and allows them to share water, carbon, nitrogen, and other minerals. German forester Peter Wohlleben calls it the “woodwide web”.
Mycelium releases enzymes that break down organic matter which nourishes other organisms and plants. The mycelia of two compatible fungi can fuse, allowing the cells of each to combine and their DNA to mix (fungus sex). Those new cells end up in new spores which are the fungus children floating out into the world.
Invisible to you as you go about your life, mycelium is nourishing our world from the ground up. The living soil is like history from which the future springs. Remember…
Ignorance of history is like walking backwards into the future with your eyes shut.
Lauren Sinnott