New mural, artwork on signal boxes coming to Napa Valley Vine Trail
March 22, 2018
Link to original article: Napa Valley Register
Napa Valley Register
“Jack & Jill” will join a butterfly-holding woman, surrealist houses and a prism of colors among the images gracing the Napa Valley Vine Trail.
A director of the Napa Valley Wine Train has announced plans to add to the Rail Arts District, a 1.7-mile section of the railroad planned to become a linear gallery of public artworks. Joining the district are two large-scale installations including “Jack & Jill,” a 110-foot-long, 20-foot-tall piece by the Los Angeles-based artist known as Bumblebeelovesyou, according to Scott Goldie, president and co-chief executive of the Wine Train.
A rendering of the “Jack & Jill” mural shows an image of two schoolchildren, a boy and girl, reclining and facing each other as if in relaxed conversation. The childlike imagery echoes other outdoor artworks by Bumblebeelovesyou installed at the Kodak Building in Hollywood, the Long Beach Museum of Art and other Southern California locations, officials said.
“Jack & Jill” will go up on the back wall of the building at 1785 Tanen St., south of Jackson Street.
Another installation will be created by Mario Martinez, known professionally as Mars-1, and will be inspired by science fiction and images of space, Goldie said. Mars-1’s artwork will adorn the rear of a building north of British Auto Repair of the Napa Valley, in the 1600 block of Action Avenue.
Both outdoor works will be executed in a combination of oil, spray and latex paints with a clearcoat top layer to ease the removal of graffiti, said Goldie.
Work on the murals is scheduled to begin during the eighth annual Arts in April, a month-long series of exhibitions, art fairs and other activities around Napa County.
Also next month, the Wine Train will decorate 12 signal boxes along the railroad with vinyl wraps designed by various artists from Napa and elsewhere, Goldie said. Among the local artists whose work will be seen on signal boxes are Norma Quintana, Oscar Aguilar and Teri Blodgett.
Those wraps will appear between April 9 and the 23rd, and both Bumblebeelovesyou and Mars-1 also are expected to spend about a week in Napa to oversee their murals.
The Rail Arts District is a portion of the Vine Trail following the Wine Train through largely urban and industrial parts of the city of Napa. Property owners along the route are encourage to install or sponsor outdoor art pieces to beautify the trail for walkers, joggers and cyclists on the Napa portion of the path, which continues north to Yountville and is the longest completed portion at 12 ½ miles.
The Vine Trail is envisioned to span 47 miles from Calistoga to Vallejo when fully built.
The Wine Train, which has contributed more than $100,000 toward the Rail Arts District, has launched a campaign to raise a further $75,000 and has garnered $30,000 of that sum, according to Goldie.
Donations can be made by credit card through the district website radnapa.org, at Indiegogo.com under the search term “RAD Napa,” or by checks mailed to Napa Valley Vine Trail, 3299 Claremont Way (No. 4), Napa, CA 94558.
The Wine Train also is hosting an open house about the Rail Arts District April 26 at its Napa depot, at 1275 McKinstry St.
SEE MORE NEWS STORIES >
