Public Art Proposals for 2nd Street @ Ida Street
Mural for Concrete Retaining Wall
Below are two (2) design proposals for the concrete retaining wall along 2nd Street at Ida Street.
The mural will extend approximately 200 feet along 2nd Street.
UNTITLED
WYATT HERSEY
(Santa Cruz, CA)
This mural concept is designed as a visual tapestry, weaving together elements of nature, community, and cultural identity. The artwork is composed of a series of symbolic panels, each carrying a fragment of the city’s story.
Local wildlife like the coyotes, snake and steelhead, speak to the living ecosystems that thrive in the region, from the waters of the bay to the creeks that rise from it, and the surrounding oak studded hills. Wildflowers, oak leaves, and geometric motifs reference both the natural patterns of growth and the human impulse to organize and create meaning through design.
Scenes of Mount Tam and the nature filled panels root the mural in San Rafael’s landscape, while icons like simple homes, bicycles, and images of community life honor the people who shape and sustain the city. The mission is represented subtly in the use of circular motifs that call back to the classic window form seen above the front door of this iconic building.
All together, these images form a modern-day glyphic language that is both ancient and contemporary, and that celebrates San Rafael as a meeting ground of ecology, creativity, and human stories.
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WATERSHED
Koko + Nuri
(Tehachapi, CA)
Watershed is a celebration of San Rafael’s rich riparian ecosystems—a living confluence of water, life, and cultural memory. The mural honors the dynamic interplay between native species and the communities that have long understood and revered this landscape, weaving ecological detail with symbolic resonance.
The artwork will depict native flora and fauna found throughout Marin’s wetlands, tributaries, and estuaries: great blue herons, river otters, coho salmon, Marin Western flax, pickleweed to name a few—species that depend on the fragile balance of the watershed. These creatures are rendered alongside a depiction of a Coast Miwok scout surveying the wetlands. Drawing from the Miwok worldview, which holds that all elements of nature—animals, rocks, water, wind—possess spirit and agency, the mural incorporates a subtle animist presence throughout: eyes embedded in stones, fish swimming through the currents of time, birds whose wings echo the shape of the hills. Flowing from wetland to bay, the mural captures the natural progression of the watershed, with color transitions that echo its changing ecosystems.
By integrating these natural and cultural elements, Watershed speaks to the continual flow and interdependence of all life. The mural will be designed in dialogue with the existing rock façade, enhancing its textures with a vibrant yet site-responsive palette. For commuters and pedestrians alike, the mural becomes a moment of placemaking—a visual invitation to reconnect with the land, notice what often goes unseen, and remember the stories embedded in the water and soil.
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