As you walk, bike, or drive along Highway 101 in Encinitas, it's easy to spot dozens of murals. But that wasn't always the case.
“There wasn't murals around. I had the whole town man, I did so many murals around here — down in Cardiff, everywhere,” said Kevin Anderson.
The 66-year-old artist has been a long-time North County resident and was one of the very first artists to paint murals in Encinitas.
He explained how it all started back in 1995, with a mural of an idyllic nature scene.
“I started right on D Street in Encinitas at a little Hawaiian restaurant — Kealani's — and that was my first mural in Encinitas,” Anderson said.
His work hasn’t slowed down since. Anderson is constantly creating private and public art pieces across North County.
Standing in front of a large mural of waves, birds and a plant-covered shoreline he recently painted in the Leucadia neighborhood, he described why public art pieces like his matter to a community.
“They're like windows, beautiful windows to look through to see something that you don't see everyday,” he said. “You look up and see this giant mural and you just go 'wow.' It just takes you away for a minute.”
What used to be just a few murals in Encinitas a decade ago has blossomed into an abundance, with many public art pieces focused on the environment and different cultures.
You can see them along Highway 101 — some in plain sight, and others tucked away like hidden treasures.
“We really wanted to make an impact by having multiple murals go up at the same time,” said Irene Pyun, the executive director of Encinitas 101 MainStreet Association.
While walking through the heart of Encinitas, she described the works in the city's “mural alley,” which runs just west of the 101, from D Street to E Street.
The murals started as a project to reduce crime in 2015, but they’ve also inspired art in other parts of the town in the following years.
The push for more public art started with one piece in particular back in 2011, said Naimeh Woodward, president of Encinitas Friends of the Arts.
“Surfing Madonna happened,” Woodward said, standing in front of the massive mosaic depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe surfing.
The art piece was originally installed under a public bridge on Highway 101. Woodward said it challenged the very notion of what is art versus graffiti and it gave a voice to the artists in town.
“It brought a lot of conversations in the community from every angle, and that was music to my ears,” Woodward said. “(It was) very uncomfortable at times, but I think it catapulted the mural programs and it just put Encinitas on the map.”
The piece also received a lot of pushback.
“Some were offended because they couldn't figure out why Mother Mary of Guadalupe would be surfing. But once it was explained … that surfers are tapping into that divinity to save the ocean, they embraced it,” Woodward said.
Since the Surfing Madonna, there’s been a wide range of new artists painting Encinitas, which is a welcome change for Anderson.
Whether the works are small or large, he said watching the growth of public art in his hometown has brought him great joy.
“If you look around Encinitas now, everywhere you look there's murals and a lot of them are painted,” Anderson said. “In the last 10 years they've grown exponentially, I mean it's really become something.”
So how does the public art scene in Encinitas expand from here?
“We do want to add more murals for sure but we also want to be a lot more mindful of it. Because the more and more murals you add, we want to be more purposeful of what they are and how they kind of tell a story,” Pyun said.
Woodward wants to expand beyond murals, too.
“I do encourage people to see some of the sculptures. Hopefully the ones that are going to go up on a temporary basis, there are five sculpture pads, they're coming,” she said.
After decades of work, and countless brush strokes, Anderson’s vision for an art-filled city has arrived, weaving a large and tangible tapestry across his hometown.
His influence is undeniable.
“I wanted to live in a world where art is really important and art meant something. And in a world where I could actually show people my art,” Anderson said.
Now, his murals are expanding beyond their borders and into other cities across San Diego and California. And with them, so is a little bit of the essence of Encinitas.
