Precita Eyes Muralists
Murals: 1976-2005
"Pasado/Futuro"
​©2005 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on brick
Mural Directors: Susan Kelk Cervantes with the Precita Eyes Community Mural Workshop.
Location: Jerry's Java and Tattoo, 24th and Potrero Streets, San Francisco, CA
DEScription:
Jerry’s Java and Tattoo Mural Project 
The mural honors this place and its people during many phases of change throughout time. We respect diverse cultures and the people who bring these cultures together. A community is nurtured by and connected with the Earth and the generations from the past, current, and future. Preserving and celebrating Mother Earth and our cultural traditions sustains, feeds, and strengthens our souls and ensures the same for future generations.. The proposed mural design reads from right to left starting with an Ohlone dancer who is the original native and preserver of the area. He moves through a portal (the window on the building). It is a gateway connecting two neighborhoods (24th Street and Potrero Hill) and their attributes (garden, businesses, people) and their histories, present, and future.
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The Ohlone figure is moving from past indigenous roots to the next culture and people who inhabited the area, the current Latino culture that has planted deep roots here. We walk into Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary - who is playing the guitar. This also emphasizes the importance of music celebrated by all cultures. The next figure is a pregnant African-American woman from the seventies with a sign expressing the needs of her community that is still relevant now. She too is looking through another portal (the other window) and the other side of the window represents our current neighborhood. Below are a group of children planting and harvesting in an abundant garden and dancing in a circle. The next figure is a mother pushing a stroller, joining the present-day café scene. The café is alive with people from different cultures and times. The African drummer is an important representation of the pulse of the community. We greet the Aztec inspired figure who has stepped out of the past experiencing yesterday’s and today’s landscape. Potrero Hill, known as goat hill, is in the form of a breast – where nourishment provided food for the surrounding community.. You see the view from Potrero Hill over the bay and prominent institutions such as SF General Hospital and the housing projects. In the cloud above the hill is a custom low-rider bicycle, part of Mission District culture, emphasizing our need to seek ways to preserve our environment and encourages this as a modern alternative to other modes of transportation. The clouds enveloping the sky move on to become cultural motifs. The Aztec is sharing a cup of java with a beautiful Cambodian princess. Her dress and body art compares other traditions and shows elements of different cultures and how they express their appearance. This figure reminds us of all the Asian refugees who also helped build our communities in the bay area. The woman with the outstretched arms with a coffee/heart tattoo is a modern symbol of the origins of coffee (past and present). Her tattoo becomes tattoo flowers growing in the foreground. Finally, our eyes rest on the sun. The sun is a very strong and colorful image symbolic of this place. In the center is a hawk inspiring and encouraging us to remember and go back to a vital place where we feel our connection to the Earth, the seeds, the water, the creatures.. The circle is divided into the four directions, north, south, east, and west. The rays of the sun are the colors of a sunrise - a new day. The rays are also decorated with a treble clef and staff. The musical notes and birds (dove and cranes– peace; humming bird – spirituality; albatross – freedom) symbolize harmony, hope, and creativity. These ideals are also vital to a growing and changing neighborhood. By Precita Eyes Community Mural Workshop participants Lauren Quock, Schahera VanDyk, Ana Szumonski, Justine Ferguson, Adrian Cotter, Zandra Urbina, Marian Ring, Bodil Schmidt, Erica Kent, Fred Alvarado, Cory Calandra, Cynthia Roman, Brtenda Miller, Ernesto Aguilera, Kristen, Naomi Miller-Wave. Directed by Susan Cervantes, Founder Precita Eyes Muralists.
"All Pets Hospital" 
​©2005 Precita Eyes Muralists

13.5’ x 25’, acrylic on stucco
Designed and painted by: Master Muralist Susan Kelk Cervantes and assisted by Fred Alvarado and Suaro Luis Cervantes.
Location: 269 South Van Ness Avenue, SF, CA 94110
Description:
The mural was designed in collaboration with the All Pets Hospital staff who wanted to see a bold design of all the animals that they have cared for. The animals depicted are arranged in a hierarchical order based on the animals they care for most frequently such dogs and cats to iguanas and macaws. In a tropical environment with brightly colored datura flowers and other plants you see a portrait of a golden retriever in the center with a large red macaws flying freely above and below is a friendly cat, turtle, a pair of rabbits and a guinea pig. To their left is an iguana, parakeet and toucan above camouflaged by the foliage. Framing the mural on the right side is a hidden green python wrapped around a branch next to an unsuspecting cockatiel. The mural is complete with a rat and ferret on the ground.
Espiritu Corazon de Mayfair
​©2005 Precita Eyes Muralists
Silver Ave Health Center
​©2005 Precita Eyes Muralists
2004
Womens Building Celebration Mural
​©2004 Precita Eyes Muralists
How Do you Shine, Sunnydale
​©2004 Precita Eyes Muralists
"Everett Middle School 75th Anniversary" 
​©2004 Precita Eyes Muralists

13’ x 22’, acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Ellen Silva and Jamie Wynn
Contributing Artists: 6th and 7th grade art classes
Location: Everett Middle School, 450 Church Street, San Francisco, CA
DESCRIPTION:
Images from the art students depict what their thoughts are about Everett Middle School celebrating its's 75th Anniversary. Sports is a big theme.
"Our Second Home"  ©2004 Precita Eyes Muralists

26’ x 13’, acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Jamie Wynn and Ellen Silva
Contributing Artists: Mural designed and painted by 11th and 12th grade students from Russia and Israel at the Hebrew Academy .
Location: Hebrew Academy, 13th Avenue and Park Presidio, San Francisco, CA .
DESCRIPTION:
Images from the art students depict what their thoughts are about Everett Middle School celebrating its's 75th Anniversary. Sports is a big theme.
2003 and earlier
Farmers Market Crate Labels
© 2003 Precita Eyes Muralists 
"Alemany Farmers Market Community Murals" ©2003 Precita Eyes Muralists
© 2003 Precita Eyes Muralists

80 stalls over 4,000 square feet, acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Susan Kelk Cervantes
Contributing Artists: 
Marcella Ostrovsky, Diallo Jones, Ellen Silva, Luz Cervantes, Jaime Wynn, Henry Sultan, Molly Marino, Susan Cervantes, John Santos, Jason Gilmore, Christy Majano, Suaro Cervantes, Cynthia Roman, Joseph Norris, Josh Stevens, Richard Purcell, Paco Alvarado, Diane Parkhill, Yarrow Lutz, Rebecca Peters, Patricia Rose, Molly Nardone, Crystal Lim, Emily Lackman, Fred Alvarado, Jennifer Low, Gosha Chen, Kenneth Malcolm, Mashiro Okasda, Ruben Antonio, Leanna Blankenship, and the Youth Mural Workshop
Location: 100 Alemany Blvd., Alemany Farmers Market, SF, CA
Description:
Funded by the Neighborhood Beautification Fund. Tropical yellow and white orchid blossoms, bunches of fresh green spinach and lettuce, tables with tangy oranges, sweet wildflower honey, and steaming five-flavor tamales. These are only a sampling of the fresh produce and prepared food shoppers encounter while walking around the Alemany Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning. Beautiful murals painted by Precita Eyes on every stall and archway now also greet visitors to the market. “They add so much vibrancy to this place,” exclaimed June Morrow, a veteran patron of the market from San Francisco. It is the oldest farmers’ market in the Bay Area, having opened on August 12, 1943, during World War II as an outlet for surplus crops from nearby farms. Today, the market boasts an abundance of fresh foods and vegetables, with a variety of produce that reflects the character and cultural diversity of the BayArea.

In September 2002, the city of San Francisco commissioned Precita Eyes, with funds from the Neighborhood Beautification Fund, to paint murals on the thirty-three stalls and sixteen archways throughout the market with the hope of attracting more visitors and revenue. The project evolved in two phases over a 12 months, and took three months to paint.

Over twenty artists and dozens of volunteers worked on the project, individually and collaboratively designing and painting the stalls and archways. Most were local with an interest in community projects, and included students from local schools. All artists were encouraged to visit their assigned stall and do research before starting their designs.

​Many of the farmers who sell at the market have been doing so for generations, and one of the goals of the murals is to recognize the farmers and their contributions to the community.

The Eggman family, for example, has been selling honey at the market for almost fifty years. Pointing to the mural painted on their stall, number thirty-one, a young man working at the stand explained, “It’s of our great uncle and aunt who were the first to start coming to the market.” He pauses, then adds, “The murals have added so much.”
"Millenium Mural" 
​©2002 Precita Eyes Muralists

12’ x 90’, acrylic on stucco
Mural Directors: Directed by Susan Cervantes and Marta Ayala in collaboration with over 50 seniors.
Location: On Lok 30th St Senior Center. 225 30th Street, SF, CA
DESCRIPTION:
Sponsored: San Francisco Arts Commission Special Projects Grant
Peace Mural 
©2001 Precita Eyes Muralists
"Imagine" 
​©2001 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on MDO board
Directed by: Susan Cervantes
Location: Boys and Girls Club, Excelsior, SF
Description:
This mural was created with a group of 9 artists in a Community Mural Class at Precita Eyes Mural Center, San Francisco, CA, led by Susan Cervantes. The workshop began on September 13, 2001, just days after the tragedies occurred in New York.

​It is now displayed in the Boys and Girls club in the Excelsior District in S.F.
"Light a Candle" 
​©2001 Precita Eyes Muralists

14’ x 8’, acrylic on MDO Board
Directed by: Susan Cervantes with Precita Eyes Community Mural Class.
"Seton Heritage Wall" 
​©2001 Precita Eyes Muralists

52’ x 12’, acrylic on sheetrock
Designed and painted by Ellen Silva.
Location: Seton Hospital, Daly City, CA 
Description: 
In stunning colors, a mural depicting the history of the community-care activities of the Daughters of Charity sweeps across the west wall of Seton's cafeteria-dining room for fifty-two feet at a height of twelve feet. The panorama opens with a portrait of St. Vincent de Paul and closes with Sister Carmen Ptacnik, D.C., comforting a patient.

The idea of the Heritage Wall came from the Seton Health Services Foundation, and a committee composed of Sister William Eileen Dunn, D.C., Sister Marjory Ann Baez, D.C., Bernadette Smith, and Frank Malifrando. The mural was designed by Ellen Silva an independent artist hired by Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center. After the design was completed, Ellen transferred an outline drawing of the mural on to the dining-room wall.

Seton associates were invited to a 2 hour "paint-In" to fill in the colors. They came by the dozens, took up brushes dipped in bold pigments, and, guided by a small rendering of the finished design, brought to life the persons and events portrayed.

​Ellen completed the mural-and corrected not-quite-even lines or borders applied by the enthusiastic, but not always accurate, Seton volunteers who, even as they painted, became part of the ongoing history portrayed in the mural.
"Maitri: Compassionate Friendship" 
​©2001 Precita Eyes Muralists

14’ x 44’, acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Susan Cervantes and Jamie Wynn in collaboration with 30 community volunteers.
Location: Church and Duboce, SF CA  Directed by Susan Cervantes and Jamie Wynn in collaboration with 30 community volunteers.
Description:  ​
Funded by Christmas in April. Maitri AIDS Hospice.
"Soul Journey"  
​©2000 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Susan Cervantes, in collaboration with Ronnie Goodman, John “Diallo” Jones, Mel Simmons, Tomashi Jackson, Dan Machiarini and Red Jackson and community volunteers.
Location: 1625 Carroll Avenue at 3rd Streets, SF, CA
Description: ​
“Soul Journey”© 2000 Precita Eyes Muralists, Designed and directed by Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Neighborhood Beautification Fund and Carroll Avenue Associates. 34’x 180’, acrylic on stucco, 1625 Carroll Avenue at 3rd Streets, SF CA.
Leyenda Azteca Mural 
​©2000 Precita Eyes Muralists

10’ x 15’, acrylic on stucco
Leia Mash and Jaime Wynn with the Youth Mural Workshop
Contributing Artists: 
Location: 24th and Harrison corner of 16th and Market in San Francisco.
All One Love - Rose Hotel 
Song of Spirit
"Culture of the Crossroads" 
​©1998 Precita Eyes Muralists

3’ x 17’ x 150’, exterior acrylic on cinder block
Directed by: Susan Cervantes in collaboration with 16 muralists from Precita Eyes including children and youth. Funded by Rodrick Food Services.
Location:  McDonalds’ Restaurant, 24th and Mission Streets, San Francisco, CA
"Hope for the World Cure" 
©1998 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on brick
Directed by: Susan Cervantes, painted and designed by Elba Rivera, Clif Cox in collaboration with Ruth Altman, Mark Arseneau, Andrew Arzate, Dorothy Bartolomucci, Hazel Betsey, Pali Boucher, Jose Escalante, J. C. Oregon, Richard Purcell, Robert Raeburn, John Micheal Stevenson, Tippet, Karen Tripp, Daniel Woods.
Location: Backside of the Bagdad Cafe, corner of 16th and Market in San Francisco.

Description: ​
The mural can be read from right to left beginning with an elaborate explosion of colors. This torrent of color represents the chaos created by the disease and yet the beauty in the artist’s life and the beauty she contributes to it. “I feel the importance of doing what’s significant to me,” she states, “thereby adding great beauty to life itself. I love life and the colors add to it” (Hazel Betsey).
To the right is a single palm tree. With a price tag of $13.5 million for the F- Street Market renovation from Valencia to Castro, the single tree representing the whole project. In the face of the dire need for more money to fund AIDS research and support for patients, this image serves to question the City’s priorities (Andy Arzate).
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To the left of these images is a large representation of the AIDS virus itself (Clif Cox) above a figure holding the world urging us to “Be there for the World Cure” (Andy Arzate). Teardrops fall from indicating the many tears that have been shed (José Escalante). The teardrops become larger and filled with medication until they ultimately splash into the cocktail glass of a bed-ridden patient below receiving an IV, in a potent symbol of the cocktail of medications taken daily by those infected (Jose Escalante and Clif Cox). Abstract representations of fluids weave in and out of the designs (John Micheal Stevinson). A moon and a star shine from above. (Mark Arseneau).

The tears at the top begin to diminish in size over a representation of the AIDS Quilt, in memory of the many who have lost their lives to this disease. The first square of the quilt, Marvin Feldman’s, is shown (Daniel Woods). Next to it is a memorial scene of one of the artist’ lover who died of AIDS, with a poem by the lover (Juan Carlos Oregon). The mural focuses here on memorial and recognition of the individual life. The community is healed when their voices are heard through ritualized celebrations of the lives of their loved ones and through the public mourning of their deaths. The next image, the tricycle with the milk carton, represents the healing that community awareness brings by evoking the Great Memorial Day Tricycle Race spearheaded by Charlotte Coleman owner of one of the first lesbian bars in the world” The Front” 1959 and “the Mint” 1969 until 1975, and a memorial to Harvey Milk who was surely one of the spectators (Andy Arzate).

A Figure who represents the frequent use of holistic methods of healing hovers above; the brilliant colors of the 7 chakras flow into the colors which constitute the rainbow flag (Daniel Woods). Just below and to the left, the “Alma Rota” Broken Spirit, a figure originally a sculpture by Manuel Martin, serves as a memorial to young people who have died of AIDS (Ruth Altman). The mural moves from dark to light from the depression of disease to the hope of life. Hope, in the figure of the volunteer representing all the volunteers that have stepped forward on their own, giving their love freely to those in need. The image serves as a special thank you to all the volunteers (Mark Arseneau). The flowers, cala lilies, catch the beauty of life and the peacefulness of death. The theme of healing is made explicit in the natural images of animals with people and trees together with the artists words inscribed in the tree’s branches. “Medicine heals my body, animals heal my heart and soul. “ here the connection to the earth and our animal natures is a source of joy and rejuvenation (Pali Boucher). Above the tree the AIDS candle is painted on a vent emerging from the building (Mark Arseneau). On one side of the vent “Castro” is painted in one direction of the on- coming traffic, resembling the marquis of the Castro Theatre (John Michael Stevenson). Behind the candle is another memorial quilt over which the pink triangle of Gay Pride is superimposed, and image of a butterfly-representing rebirth (Richard Purcell and John Michael Stevenson).

Following these images, two dancing figures, female and male, transparently blend together “ as one” reminding us that we are all both (Richard Purcell). The rainbow flag is muted as it hangs over the active- AIDS end of the wall, but it turns into a vibrant banner of color as it waves over the new life that springs up on this left side of the wall. The dancers and the flag carrier both remind us that the muted and the vibrant are part of the journey of Life (Richard Purcell and Robert Raeburn).

A tribute to Dykes on Bikes roars below and to the left of the dancing figures. The artist explains her contribution in the following passage. “ Being a member of the women’s motorcycle contingent, my name was pulled out of a hat of one hundred to be the pace rider in 1992! It was a thrill of a lifetime and I was so full of Gay Pride to lead dykes in bikes at the Gay Pride 92 Parade. People cheered as we rode down the road, it was as if everyone was cheering for me. I was so proud and full of pride about who I am- a lesbian with HIV and my negative lover on the back of my bike waving the leather flag” (Dorothy Bartolomucci). The final images are “Lollipop love trees, fields of love and mountains to climb.” They are images, which validate the struggle, the struggle, the recognition of the growth of love and hope and flight (Karen Tripp). The end figure is a genderless being with an enlarged heart for a head that is “seeing” love, receiving a seed of compassion in its right hand and offering a star of hope from the left hand while the heart blossoms into a gigantic and radiant flower that flames with passion while sprouting antennae of both male and female symbols of light (Tippett).

The realization for this mural is a “dream from the heart come true”. The artist, Clif Cox, states, “From the beginning of my HIV diagnosis to full blown AIDS, I have had a dream from my heart. The dream is like a full-length movie that you can enjoy fully, but feels sad when it ends. Hopefully, when I die or am cured of the AIDS virus, people will see some of the scenes from my AIDS existence in this history of the recorded. A mural can translate, in non- threatening ways, the reality of existence and our hopes. Art is healing, but also a spiritual experience. Please enjoy viewing this mural; you may see your dreams in Technicolor and enjoy your full hearts of concern and kindness.”
"Nurture"
©1997 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on cinder block
Directed by Susan Cervantes.
Location:  Gilt Edge Creamery, corner of 4th and Townsend in San Francisco.
Banquet of Life
©1996 Precita Eyes Muralists ​
Precita Valley Vision
​©1996 Precita Eyes ​
Friscos Wild Side
©1995 Precita Eyes ​
"Keep Our Ancient Roots Alive"
©1995 Precita Eyes Muralists

40’ x 28’, acrylic on stucco
Designed by: Susan Cervantes. Funded by Mayor’s Office of Community Development.
Location: Moscow and Persia Streets Cleveland Elementary, San Francisco, CA
“Si Se Puede” 
©1995 Precita Eyes Muralists
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Size: 38’x180’
Location: Exterior east wall, Cesar Cesar Chavez Elementary School, San Francisco. 
​Funding: SF Mayors’ Office of Community Development, WESTAF, Zellerbach Family Fund. 
Carnaval Mural
​​©1994 Precita Eyes Muralists
Your Eyes Embrace My World
©1993 Precita Eyes Muralists
Five Sacred Colors of Corn
©1991 Precita Eyes Muralists
Indigenous Eyes
​©1990 Precita Eyes Muralists
Silent Language of the Soul
©1990 Precita Eyes Muralists
Mission Pool
​©1987 Precita Eyes Muralists
Cross of the Quetzalcoatl
​​©1987 Precita Eyes Muralists

8’ x 12’, acrylic on plywood
Luis Cervantes, Susan Cervantes, Margo Bors, Tony Parrinello, Henry Sultan, Patricia Rose
Location: San Francisco State University Dining Hall.
Description: ​
Funded by the SF Recreation and Park Dept. and California Arts Council.
Vision of America At Peace
​©1984 Precita Eyes Muralists
The Primal Sea
​©1980 Precita Eyes Muralists

12’ x 90’, acrylic on stucco
Directed by: Susan Cervantes in collaboration with the community.
Location: Garfield Square and Pool, San Francisco.
Description:  ​
Funded by the SF Recreation and Park Dept. and California Arts Council.
A Bountiful Harvest
​​©1980 Precita Eyes Muralists

Acrylic on stucco
Location: China Books and Periodicals Co. 2929 24th St., SF, CA
Family Life and Spirit of Mankind 
©1976 Precita Eyes Muralists

Size: 26'x84'
Location: Leonard R. Flynn Elementary 3125 Cesar Chavez, San Francisco. Exterior south face, diptych ().
​Funding: SF Mayor's Office of Community Development and SF CETA Arts Program.
Description
The main elements of inspiration for the diptych mural “Family Life and Spirit of Mankind” were the 70-year-old acacia trees in Precita Park directly across the street from the school. Many of the trees have since been replaced, but they emerge in the mural as trees of life and spirit, and central elements around which everything else moves. 
In the panel on the left the tree has been painted with seven multicolored branches and seven multicolored blossoming flowers. The number seven is symbolic of the seven color rays of the sun, seven musical notes, and seven days of the week. In the center is a man and woman representing the diversity of our neighborhood families. The woman is inspired by the Spanish legend of Anjana. In this form she wears a dress made of stars and flowers, and shepherds animals and oversees life in caves. Anjana can also change her physical form into an old woman to test people’s charity. The Warrior is wearing a Samoan wrap called Lavalava, a hybrid Aztec and Mayan headdress, and Jamaican arm and waistbands. His native bow is a corn stalk where the silk becomes Anjana’s hair. The couple emanate light and love between them that spirals into seven butterflies and birds revolving outward, including an eagle. In the boughs of the tree are the four stages of our life cycle: birth, youth, old age, and death.
The tree in the right panel is the Tree of the Spirit, the branches are white representing the color of the spirit. The spark of that spirit starts at birth in the center of the tree from the spiral on top of the baby's head where our hair grows out from. The Tree of the Spirit is also kindled by the larger than life Fire Juggler at the right side of the panel. On the upper left of the panel is a Phoenix coming out of the flames representing the symbol of San Francisco and its resilience. The Family is represented in the right panel by the familiar faces and everyday life of the neighborhood people around Precita Park.
 
Learn more about this mural and others at www.precitaeyes.org
More Murals
Precita Eyes Mural Arts & Visitors Center
2981 24th St., San Francisco CA, 94110  •  415.285.2287  •  General Info: [email protected]
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©2024 Precita Eyes Muralists, Precita Eyes Arts & Visitors Center, 415-285-2287, 2981 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110