A unique public art project has transformed a nearly mile-long flood control channel into one of the largest murals in the county.
Local artist Elisa Torres had splashes of paint on her overalls as she climbed down the precarious metal steps set into the wall of this flood control channel. She was putting the finishing touches on a mural along a nearly one-mile-long stretch of the channel.
"This structure is usually overlooked," said Torres. "All the design is based on local nature, the native species, flowers, insects, and there's no people in this bureau at all. I really wanted people to focus on the native habitat that we have here because I feel like that often gets overlooked."
The Oxnard-based artist has led the artistic work on this colorful project that has transformed this otherwise anonymous stretch of concrete.
"This whole project has been just a large collaboration, and we had volunteers, we had university, we had colleges, we have probation youth as well," she said.
The project — called the Moon Ditch Mural Project — will be seen by tens of thousands of people daily because it’s visible from the busy 101 and passenger rail lines. And it was a way to transform something seemingly routine into an asset for the community, says David Yoshitomi, arts and culture manager for the county of Ventura.
"The idea was really let's transform what is, you know, a seemingly routine piece of public image structure into a canvas that can be something of a landmark for the community," he said.
It's also a step towards solving a very practical problem, explained County of Ventura Public Works agency’s Sandy Harrison: The channel was repeatedly being tagged and covered with graffiti.
"We were constantly covering graffiti, or as we call it, vandalism. So we'd come down here, and we kept doing it repeatedly, and we were spending a lot of money. So we thought, well, wouldn't it be nice to have a mural here? Something that the community can be connected to and be proud of. And maybe it would dissuade some people from tagging it constantly.
"So it was more of a cost savings for me than anything else. That's really what started this whole thing. And then it just kind of grew from there," she said.
The idea that you can reduce graffiti by having murals in public spaces is a tried and tested deterrent. Peter Tyas, executive director of Studio Channel Islands, who has partnered with the county for the project, said it brings significant drops in new graffiti.
"Very much that is the case," said Tyas. "Artists recognize one another's talent, and they recognize one another's labor. This has been a huge labor. You know, painting almost a mile of mural takes a lot of time, and 200 people came to help. And so, you know, people who tag, who do graffiti in this neighborhood, they recognize what's been done here and for whom. They know this is their community. They share this space. So they're very respectful of the creativity of others."
"The artists that were used are from this community," said Tyas. "So we didn't bring in people from LA to do this work. We recruited people who live in these neighborhoods who drive past this every day. And so we are very confident that this piece will be enjoyed and shared rather than tagged."
The Moon Ditch Mural officially opens on Saturday at 10 a.m.
