The Mural
On the morning of July 5, 2020, my friend Leonardo Vargas and I met for coffee. We were out of school for the summer and decided we wanted to do something big. As artists, we looked to stamp our marks on Palo Alto in the best way we knew how, and embarked on a process that would drive us halfway to madness but leave us feeling so incredibly proud.
A mural.
We set out to paint a mural that would bring some much-needed positivity into our community during the early stages of the pandemic—something joyful, vibrant, and inspiring. Over the next couple of weeks, we drafted a handful of designs, biked around Palo Alto scouting blank walls, and reached out to several building owners. Of every e-mail I sent out, I only got one back. And they said yes.
Fortunate enough to have received permission and support from Eric Hassett of Hassett Ace Hardware, we looked to the city for approval. Unfortunately, the not-so-simple process of obtaining a work permit made it hard to get things done as quickly as we wanted. The 2021 school year began and we shifted focus, pushing the painting to the back of our minds. While I can't speak for Leo—probably the most ambitious and driven creative I've ever met— I was starting to believe it might not happen at all. We wanted to surprise our friends at school, only telling them there was something big coming soon. In reality, we weren’t doing anything. Soon came the time for college applications and there went my energy. Then track season. Ashamed every time I had to message Eric letting him know we weren't quite ready yet, Leo and I had to make an important choice: give it all up or hold out a little longer?
Then on August 24, 2021, we got our green light from the city.
We scrambled to prep for painting. Leo had a small projector that we used to trace out our cardboard stencils, and in my backyard we taught ourselves how to use spray paint (his mom had to buy the cans since neither of us were 18 and could buy them ourselves. Shoutout Taryn). We took a couple days to practice, then approached the wall. Working tirelessly for the next 7 days, we finished our mural, 'The Peak of Bliss,' on September 5, 2021. Exactly 1 year and 2 months after we began. And it's hard to think of anything I've been more proud of.
'The Peak of Bliss' depicts a young boy leaping into a ball pit . At the crest of his jump, he is experiencing joy in its purest, most concentrated form—unadulterated bliss. As we worked, Leo and I were approached by a passer-by who viewed the picture with a puzzled look on his face as if trying to decipher a riddle. He turned to me and asked what it meant, to which I replied, "well, what do you think?" He said he wasn’t sure, he just saw a happy kid jumping into a pile of balloons.
I laughed. That's all there is to it.
Our mural can be found in the alley behind Hassett Ace Hardware on 875 Alma St. in Palo Alto, CA. A massive thank you to Eric Hassett and the crew at Hassett Hardware, to Nadya Chuprina and Elise DeMarzo of the City of Palo Alto, and to Leo—my brother.
