Bryan Valenzuela
I grew up in Land Park and I’ve seen Broadway transform over the past 30 years. The most recent change occurred last year when a new building was built on 16th and Broadway. Lucky for us, Bryan Valenzuela painted a beautiful mural called Cool Water on the East facing wall between Chipotle and Chase Bank.
From afar the mural is very striking - a flow of blue water travels between two hands that are surrounded by more blue water. This one is worth seeing up close though. Upon introspection one notices that the hands are made up of text that is written in varying sizes and densities to create mass through a technique similar to hashmarks.
Reflections from Byran on Cool Water:
I always find the general concept of water, the oceans and streams, the rivers and the rain, to be a property of well being. Even just the sight of it, the feeling in its presence. Its capacity for metaphor; as source of life, source of healing, source of mystery. The idea that bodies of water hypnotize and attract humans like a magnet, merely to stare into its depths and be effected by its rhythms, its movement, its power.
The mural here expands upon this concept of water and well being, yet also Sacramento’s deep connection to its land and the cultivation of that land through water. The work is a simplified and distilled variation on a broader concept that pairs the four seasons, the classical elements, the time of day, and a step in the growing cycle. This particular variation deals with the summer season, water element, light at midday, and maintenance of maturing plants exploring our human connection to nature.
The central motif is a pair of hands. Hands in my recent work have become a metaphor for all human interaction. It is how we feel the world around us, how we express, how we make and create. Here they are used as universal symbols, detailed yet non-descript, representing all cultures, all races, all genders, all creeds.
These hands will be drawn in black and white with my own drawing technique that uses thousands of handwritten words. This technique employs text in a variety of sizes and densities to carve out shape, shadow, and light in a very detailed and lifelike rendering. Some words small and unreadable, some large and bold, yet all of them weaving into a narrative that imbues the forms with the content of the piece. This added layer of information is based on my own pre-written script, specifically written for the piece, and following its metaphors and themes.
Shop The Match
