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The edges of the historic mural got damaged by overspray in May while workers were repainting the meat market\u2019s building. \u201cAt one point, they almost decided to cover up the mural entirely,\u201d said Rivera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though murals across San Francisco face ongoing risks of erasure \u2014 either accidentally, as part of new construction, or during renovations \u2014 in the Mission neighborhood, there is significant community resistance to painting over or destroying historic murals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat often happens is that a work of art gets threatened, and then people rally,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cAnd that creates sort of an opening in a conversation and an opportunity for a mural to be preserved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this case, Salvador Vazquez, owner of the carnicer\u00eda, partnered with Susan Cervantes from Precita Eyes Muralists to bring on\u00a0muralist Kerra Hendrickson, who enlisted help from Rivera as a consultant and assembled a team of volunteers to restore and protect the mural.\u00a0\u201cThis has been one of my favorite projects to lead,\u201d Hendrickson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great to see so many people from different backgrounds come together [so far].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mural conservation is an art hidden behind the vibrant discourse of mural painting in San Francisco. Compared to conservation projects heavily backed by city funding, restoring iconic murals on mom-and-pop shops like the \u201cLa Gallinita\u201d carnicar\u00eda are often grassroots efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the restoration of ‘Leyenda Azteca,’ Vazquez paid just $1,000 for supplies. According to Rivera, a similar restoration project could have cost around $80,000 if done by professional art conservators \u2014 an estimate based on his experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is huge systemic bias in the field [of art conservation],\u201d said Rivera, who learned how to restore and protect murals outside of the traditional, elite ranks of academic credentialing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To challenge the authority of art conservation in San Francisco, Hendrickson, along with the Precita Eyes Muralists team, created a crash course curriculum for volunteers, most of whom arrive with no experience in mural restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey arrive like they\u2019re in parachutes, saying, \u2018Hello, I\u2019m here, what will I be doing?,\u2019\u201d said Rivera. \u201cI have the responsibility to orient them to understand what the rules are, what the packet of ethics, science, and art is.\u201d As part of this work, Rivera incorporates virtual reality headsets to help the volunteers imagine themselves painting before they touch the real thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While volunteers work on the restorations, Cervantes, Hendrickson, and Rivera coach and give feedback on color matching, brush techniques, and specific restoration sites and tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step is \u201ca diagnostic,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cYou have to look at the mural, the wall, the building attached, and ask yourself, \u2018What are the causes of deterioration?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cLeyenda Azteca\u201d mural needed patches where the paint and wood flaked off due to the hollowness of the wall. \u201cIt has refrigerators right behind the wall. So there’s a network of moist air that was going through the slats of the building,\u201d Rivera explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resaturation is also key when it comes to a vintage mural like this one. A coating of the resin B-72 with ultraviolet absorbers enhances the weathered colors, making them more vibrant and aiding in color matching. \u201cIt’s like a mural sunscreen,\u201d said Hendrickson. \u201cWe took spray cans and we sprayed this mural, and all the colors started coming through once you put this clear coat on because of how light refracts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toxic lead-based paint was commonly used until a manufacturing ban in 1978, so making the outside of the building safe to fix it is also a necessary process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both Hendrickson and Rivera are certified for handling lead. They use a special product called Global Encasement that \u201ctakes the pieces that are falling off the wall that have lead in them, and it sticks them back to the wall and creates this coating over it. So if you actually go to the wall, it’s quite sticky,\u201d said Hendrickson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After all these steps, the mural is finally ready for paint. Precita Eyes has been producing their own paint for 40 years, mixing custom colors from acrylic pigments. Hendrickson mentioned how each time they mix a specific color, it \u201cis a little bit different\u2026 it makes it fun for us,\u201d although this can \u201dmake restorations hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterwards comes the varnish. The protective coating is very new in the mural world, keeping pieces fresh for longer. \u201cWe didn’t have the protective coating [last time],\u201d said Cervantes. \u201cBut we’ll put a very special coating on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Restoration of the La Gallinita Market\u2019s mural was completed this week. \u201cI think the lovely thing with art conservation is, at the end of the project, you can sort of have quiet moments of reflection,\u201d said Rivera. “And reflect on the tangible, physical work you\u2019ve completed, right there in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A beloved Mission mural on the side of \u201cLa Gallinita\u201d carnicer\u00eda was nearly painted over \u2014 until a dedicated team of community muralists and volunteers stepped in to save it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88922,"featured_media":62256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"above","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[25193],"class_list":["post-62227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/08302024-MURALRESTORATION-ET-PU-FOLDER-6.jpg?resize=600%2C399&quality=89&ssl=1\")
Community-backed mural conservation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LaGallinita_Mural-7.jpg?resize=600%2C400&quality=89&ssl=1\")
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Grassroots mural restoration, explained<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Resaturation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Lead Encapsulation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/08302024-MURALRESTORATION-ET-PU-FOLDER-4-600x399.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nPainting<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Correction: Kerra Hendrickson, not Yano Rivera, was the lead muralist in charge of the restoration effort. Hendrickson hired Rivera as a consultant. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/08302024-MURALRESTORATION-ET-PU-FOLDER-20.jpg?resize=600%2C399&quality=89&ssl=1\")