Eureka’s Utility Box Art

UREKA’S UTILITY BOX ART PROGRAME I f you walked or drove in Eureka any time during the summer of 2018, you would have seen dozens of artists wielding paintbrushes on street corners by David Kaftal painting by Debbi Sholes, photo courtesy City of Eureka throughout the city. The “canvases” they worked on were, in fact, 54 utility boxes belonging to the City of Eureka and to Caltrans. Most of them have been completed by now, adding delightful splashes of color in sometimes unexpected places. The Utility Art Box Program, part of the City of Eureka’s Strategic Arts Plan, complements the city’s many murals and sculptures, and is a foretaste of more public art in the works. The idea of sprucing up urban areas with art executed on utility boxes has become somewhat of an international phenomenon since the start of the new millennium, with electrical panel and traffic control box art popping up from Germany to New Zealand, as well as all over the U.S. Eureka’s utility box art, although facilitated and coordinated by the city, is paid for primarily by local businesses and individuals, each of whom pay $500 to sponsor a box. The tens of thousands of dollars thus spent are a testament to this community’s love for the arts, and its willingness to support them. With scores of artists and paintings to pick from, it was a difficult task to pick out just a few to highlight. These are just a small sample; I wish I had the room to include many more. A couple of my favorite boxes were done by Arcata artist Samantha Moore. She is shown here with her shark painting, which can be found at the corner of 7th and E Streets. The yellow shark she’s petting in the closeup is called a Lemon Shark, and really is a distinct yellow color in real life. The Smooth Hammerhead in her other photo, however, doesn’t normally come in lime green. The painting was sponsored by Surfside Burger Shack. Another of my favorites was done by students at Alder Grove Charter School, under the direction of and with a little bit of help from their art teacher, Ami Wruck. It was sponsored by MikkiMoves Realty and Mad River Radio. The design elements were selected by the students, who wanted to reflect local imagery — a forest, the mountains, salmon, a river, stars. Ami came up with the idea of the female figure to frame the elements, weaving them through her hair. She also did the final layer of brushwork, to tie everything together and give it an integrated look. The box is located at 7th and I Streets.

Top left: Ami Wrunk with Alder Grove Charter School painting, photo by David Kaftal

Bottom left: Samantha Moore working on sharks painting, photo courtesy City of Eureka

Left: Samantha Moore petting shark, photo by David Kaftal