The lower San Lorenzo River and levee has its first official mural thanks to CWC Artists-in-Residence, The Jams! The new mural adorns the levee wall in the Beach Flats on Third Street, between Riverside Ave and Raymond Street. Its central message, “Agua es Vida / Water is Life,” is a reminder to for all of us to care for the life-giving San Lorenzo just beyond the wall. This is one of several river-themed murals The Jams have created in Santa Cruz as part of a year-long artist residency funded by the Central Coast Creative Corps.
The one-way flow of traffic past the wall inspired artist Augie WK of The Jams to paint a series of stenciled images over the lettering that create a “flip-book effect” when viewed from right to left. The images show a woman diving into the river and transforming into a steelhead trout, then emerging from the water as a kingfisher in flight before finally transforming into a heart.
“We want the viewer to pause and grasp the fact that the birds, the fish, the critters and bugs, etc. are all living here together, and the water we all need to survive is a unifier,” said Jessica Carmen, the other half of The Jams. “We also wanted to highlight that the water we drink comes from the San Lorenzo River right below this levee wall, and the river’s health and well-being directly benefits us all.”
The mural was an exercise in math and measuring for the artist duo, and required a lot of effort to fill such a long area. Because the wall gradually increases in height from left to right, The Jams carefully sized the lettering to also increase along the wall while keeping the spacing consistent. They used drop shadows to make the words pop, and the coloring of the letters evokes a sunset over the water. While viewing the mural from a distance makes it possible to take in the whole scene, a close-up look reveals details like subtle sparkles on the fish and birds.
Detail of a fish from the Aqua es Vida / Water is Life mural at the San Lorenzo River
Watershed Rangers in CWC’s summer camp with Nueva Vista Community Resources (shown in the photo below) paid a visit to the mural in progress and had the unique experience of seeing artists at work. The Jams received a variety of positive feedback about the mural throughout their painting process from visitors walking to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, from Beach Flats residents, and from Boardwalk employees driving past the mural after work.
The mural was featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel online on May 28, 2024, and in the print edition on June 1, 2024. It also caught the eye of the Santa Cruz Native Facebook account, whose post about the mural has garnered hundreds of likes and dozens of comments and shares. When you are in the neighborhood, make sure to check out the mural for yourself, whether by car or on foot, and pause to give thanks to our vital San Lorenzo River!
The Jams’ artist residency is supported by a grant from the Central Coast Creative Corps, a project of the Arts Councils of Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Ventura and San Benito Counties, as well as the Santa Barbara Office of Arts and Culture, which is funded by the California Arts Council.