Mural Saves Corner (from Boredom)

The Northwest corner of 14^th Street at Valencia is coming alive with a new mural… this had been a visually dead corner with nothing but the cycle of graffiti and paint-overs and the occasional letter from the law…

 Before the mural appeared a couple of months ago this wall was crying out in Klingon-blood-orange (the shade of some Klingon desserts) sometimes blessed and cursed with meaningless graffiti. 

The new building on the Northeast corner, across the street from Carlin’s Café, didn’t help the intersection, adding a non-nondescript “West LA/Santa Monica” vibe that could be best described as “massive hallucination prior to interstellar invasion,” and perhaps the reason why (as of today) Google Maps still shows this corner as an empty lot. 

Across the street from Carlin's Cafe.

  

Only the coffee at Carlin’s Café made strolling by worthwhile. 

One day in May the Klingon-blood-orange changed to a dark Earth-ocean-blue, and the outlines of the mural appeared like character lines on a leathery face… 

But like everything worth doing slowly and meticulously, the mural is taking its time during the act of creation… and there have been the surprising evolutions and devolutions and unexpected “plot twists” that have kept strollers guessing and those stuck in traffic entertained.

I’m guessing that the mural will continue to grow around the corner on Valencia, and if that’s the case I can’t wait to see it.

The mural is a reward to the many pedestrians who had no choice but to pass by the wall with the least interesting graffiti imaginable. Some still remember the fence across the street during construction.

This mural saves the landscape with a reminder that this is still San Francisco, a beautiful city to walk (or be stuck in traffic) in.