WIDE OPEN WALLS

This past Sunday, Lou & I spent about three hours driving around downtown Sacramento with a not-to-scale, not detailed map of Wide Open Walls searching for new murals on the walls of various buildings throughout the city. It was almost like a treasure hunt of sorts as we found many of this years new murals to view & photograph.

This California mural is actually ten different murals created by ten different artists. Lou took this photo with his panoramic setting since it was too large to include in one normal picture.

Here is some detail in the "C" which was probably at least ten feet tall.

Each of the letters in California depicted an artist's rendition of our beautiful city & state.

This is the third year of Wide Open Walls, also called the Sacramento Mural Festival. I believe it is a city sponsored event which now showcases over 100 murals around the city. Wide Open Walls promotes diversity through artistic expression and believes that art should be part of daily life. The festival brings local, national and international artists together to transform our region with amazing street art.

These three were my favorites. They were all along the same wall by the same artist.

The artist's use of roses on the faces & backgrounds especially intrigued me. Who knew studying the walls of warehouses would be as fascinating as exploring art museums.

I loved the color scheme using all my favorites - pinks, purples & blues.

Wide Open Walls ran from August 8 to 18 featuring 44 artists & 30 new murals in the greater Sacramento region. This year’s lineup included internationally renowned & returning local artists. These artists are given 10 days to create their masterpieces which showcase the talents of a diverse group of painters.

These are just some of the creations for Wide Open Walls. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any explanations of what the artists were attempting to convey so we were on our own to decide.

The river, canoe & trees that made up this woman's hair was quite interesting. Maybe that is what she was thinking about?

Most didn't even have titles but this is some detail of a really long mural called, "Mars 1".

Trying to capture photos without cars, dumpsters, lights, wires & signs in them was a real challenge but I did my best.

Lou thought this looked like the inside of an otter. At first I thought it might be a dinosaur of some sort but he may be right.

I liked the colorful decoration that adorned the sides of buildings. Employees will see this everyday as they walk into the office.

The side of a parking garage across the street from Golden 1 Center, our downtown arena, where the Sacramento Kings play.

This appeared to be a large warehouse building that now houses a cafe & some shops.

Your guess is as good as mine. Looks like a cross between a bumble bee & an airplane with a radial engine that appears to be on fire!?!?!