“Growing Together” – Tenderloin People’s Garden Mural

Precita Eyes Muralists celebrates forty-years committed to building creativity, community, and collaboration across the city.

A dove flies in the bright blue sky above the arch. Below a sunrise of warm colored San Francisco fog, signals the early morning when gardeners come to work. “Growing Together” is a community mural about the Tenderloin People’s Garden, and the gardeners and residents who take care of the garden and the surrounding community.

In March of 2016, Precita Eyes directed a community mural project with TNDC, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. TNDC staff, volunteers from the Tenderloin People’s Garden, local residents, and artists from the Tenderloin Artists Collaborative worked with Precita Eyes muralists to develop themes and draw out their ideas. “Growing Together” was painted on the west wall of the McAllister Hotel, overlooking the Garden.

Yuka Ezoe, Ira Watkins, and Susan Cervantes look over reference images

San Francisco is known for having more murals per person than anywhere else on earth. As we look at Precita Eyes Muralists’ forty-year contribution to the culture of community in the city, the Mission District naturally comes to mind as the epicenter of our murals. But as you come upon the bright vision on McAllister and Larkin Streets, just a stone’s throw from City Hall, it’s beautifully clear that Precita Eyes empowers communities across the city to express their visions and dreams and to make their lives visible.

Paul Kensinger, Max Marttila, Yuka Ezoe, Susan Cervantes, Ira Watkins, and a garden volunteer in front of mural-in-progress

Ira Watkins paints on the scaffold

The volunteer-run Tenderloin people’s Garden produces thousands of pounds of fresh produce free to Tenderloin residents and creates a humane oasis in a commercially paved district. Read more about the garden on Hoodline and UC Davis Master Gardeners. “Growing Together” is a beacon for this place. The mural expresses the gardeners’ dedication and pride in their hard work. The color and scale of the mural communicates on an visceral level how garden sustains health and vibrancy in downtown San Francisco.

Susan Cervantes puts finishing touches: A giant spiral, the cycle of life, spins a colorful spectrum of healthy fruits and vegetables. Inside of the spiral a boat carries people with their hands up receiving the harvest. The boat symbolizes the many journeys people and their families have taken from different countries and places before they arrived at their home in the Tenderloin.