Muralist D.J. Javier is using a piece of natural sponge to dab purple paint on the underside of Third Street Bridge in Downtown Oxnard. He’s filling in part of the colorful new mural…which is 14.5 feet tall and 72 feet wide.
"The idea behind the mural was to create something that almost felt like a bigger picture of communal joy, but at the same time, too, I tried to layer in aspects of the community," Javier told KCLU.
The artist is working on the texture and still has a lot of extra details to add to the mural – which showcases a series of vibrant characters, reflecting the identity and cultural richness of the city, he says.
"You look at it starting at the very end, there's a character, he has a microphone and a skateboard, and that's kind of a nod to just the music community. There's a lot of really influential musicians and artists that came out of Oxnard. And so that's kind of a nod to the community there," said Javier.
"The next one is a soccer player. One after that is a paletero, pushing a street vendor cart. And the next one is a hip hop dancer kind of spinning on their head. And then this character here is wearing like a traditional Filipino barong, which is kind of like a shirting. And then the keys in his hand are kind of like a nod to the car community as well," he said.
"I wanted to just like as broadly as I can paint like a wide picture to represent Oxnard is a rich fabric of like a lot of different, really cool things happening," he said.
The project is a collaboration between the Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the Downtown Oxnard Improvement Association.
Abel Magaña from the Association says that the mural is not just a way to welcome residents and visitors to Oxnard - but also a way to tackle tagging and graffiti in public spaces.
"There's something called the broken window theory, and if it looks blighted, then it just continues to fall into disrepair that way, neglect and disrepair and nothing like public art and beautification that we've seen. It's proven here. We started on a small scale with the utility box murals, and those were prior to that. They were always targets for, you know, getting scrawls and gang tags and stuff like that, but largely untouched now. Once we put the art there, it's respected," said Magaña.
"A lot of thought went into this particular site for the installation was because it is a landmark, a marker coming into the downtown. It's a connector east to west here in the community, and it sort of says you've arrived into the Downtown," said Magaña.
Javier, who is a South-Coast local, says he hopes the artwork doesn’t just add vibrancy to this busy underpass, but also inspires the next generation of artists.
The Don’t Forget the Neighborhood Mural will be officially unveiled on Saturday September 7th from 12-2pm - it’s free and open to the public.
