Two dozen utility boxes across Hermosa Beach will receive an artist’s touch following a recent agreement between a local nonprofit and the city.
Hermosa Beach artist Josh Barnes began paiting the first utility box last week in the parking lot behind The Lighthouse Cafe, on 11th Street.
The design for that utility box features a shark swimming in blue-and-green ocean waters, with the sun setting into the sea.
On Thursday, May 30, Barnes was puting the finishing touches on the initial utility-box mural. He had put around 20 hours into create the work, using mostly spray paint, Barnes said. Barnes is also doing the finishing touches on refurbishing the Hermosa Beach Skate Park sign, which will celebrates its 25th anniversary on June 8, during which the sign will be unveiled.
“I just try to get some motion going,” Barnes said, something “that will pop out when you see it.”
The “Hermosa Means Beautiful” project is a collaboration between the city and Indivisible Arts, a nonprofit that “cultivates creativity, consciousness and connection through art,” according to its website.
Barnes “has kicked off the partnership in a beautiful way with his mural that repurposes the old skate park sign and his utility box art down by the pier,” Indivisible Arts founder Rafael McMaster said this week.
McMaster is the one who found the artists for the project. Indivisible Arts will pay the artists for their work.
Barnes, who has lived in the South Bay for 10 years, said he first became involved with Resin gallery, the home of Indivisible Arts in Hemosa Beach, after he met McMaster while working as a framer at Aaron Brothers in Hermosa Beach.
But Barnes’ first public art work was when he entered a contest to paint a utility box in his home town of San Juan Capistrano more than 10 years ago.
Of the 24 utility boxes slated to be decorated, meanwhile, half will be painted by local artists, while the other 12 will be wrapped in vinyl art created by youth artists, McMaster said.
Most of the utility boxes are city owned, and are in the public right-of-way, but some are owned by third parties, such as Southern California Edison or Verizon, Public Works Director Joe SanClemente said during last week’s City Council meeting.
“We will be rolling these out over the next several months and through the summer,” SanClemente said.
The city will put anti-graffiti coating over the utility boxes, SanClemente said, adding “our team is unfortunately very well trained at removing graffiti.”
The city also has McMaster and his team ready to provide advice on what to do if the utility boxes are defaced, SanClemente added.
Indivisible Arts has wrapping machines, McMaster said last week, so if there is any damage to the wrapped boxes, his team can print out smaller sections and patch them up.
The artists he has curated for the project, though, have experience in outdoor materials, McMaster said.
“These are people who have done many murals,” McMaster said.
And, he added, “they’re all local.”