Scarlett Baily has been busy lately with the cooperation of a friendly crowd helping her paint a 2,535-square-foot mural titled “Home” on the archways between Barracks 14 and 15 in Arts District Liberty Station.
Baily’s creation is the Naval Training Center Foundation’s latest installment in its “Installations at the Station” art series. She is currently painting Home to be completed by Halloween. Her new mural blends NTC’s history with indigenous maritime culture, celebrating San Diego’s heritage through coastal elements, native flora and fauna, and maritime traditions.
Best of all, the community actually gets to participate in Baily’s latest artistic endeavor. Her community painting days are open to all ages and guests are encouraged to dress in clothing they don’t mind getting paint on. The community is invited to interact with Baily as she paints from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, and again on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Concerning how Home came about, Baily said: “This mural was commissioned for art in public places at Liberty Station and my project was selected. I’d applied for a grant to fund this mural and bring it to life.
“I wanted to acknowledge all the communities that call San Diego home. It was really important for me to open up this space for the community, let them experience what it takes to create a mural.”
Added Baily: “We all have a creative calling and it’s important for us to go into this mind space where you’re playing with color and getting messy. A lot of people said, ‘I can’t believe you’re opening up this mural to the public (participating), they’re going to mess it up.’ I said, ‘No, they (the public) are going to pump life into this mural.’”
Baily’s work in her La Jolla studio draws upon her multicultural upbringing as a Mexican-American to tackle issues of identity and belonging. Working on a large scale and often in public, Baily believes her illustrated wonderlands and participatory art events can inspire empathy and bridge communities.
Having grown up in San Diego, Baily’s first contact with murals was seeing them in Barrio Logan as a child and being inspired. “I thought painting on this scale really is making a gift for the public, something that everyone can see: I made that connection,” she said. “My art truly comes to life when it has a public to see it.”
The 37-year-old Baily recently returned in January from an eight-year artist residency in Mexico City, where she studied under a master muralist who’d studied under Diego Rivera. Rivera is the iconic Mexican painter whose bold large-scale murals in the 20th century stimulated a revival of fresco painting in Latin America.
“This was a really exciting time for me, Mexico City is the mecca of muralism and Chicano culture,” noted Baily. “There is such a legacy of muralism down there and using public art as a tool to inspire, heal, and inform people.”
Baily added what she learned during her Mexican residency is that “public art is really a service to the people. If you have an understanding of history, you can create something that’s going to speak to the people who see it every day. I learned how to come outside of myself as an artist and to take on this responsibility, have a sense and sensibility to where I’m painting, where this mural will live.”
Baily’s new mural has a direct and emphatic connection to nature and the Peninsula. “I wanted to expand on what home feels like,” she said. “I wanted people to realize there is a connection we share with nature. I wanted them to really feel connected to this place that we’re in.
“I wanted to explore nature and the land. I thought of what Point Loma looked like before it was a Naval base and Liberty Station. I wanted to tell the original story of San Diego and its indigenous people and their maritime practices.”
The nonprofit NTC Foundation has been dedicated to revitalizing San Diego’s historic Naval Training Center as Arts District Liberty Station, a thriving 100-acre creative district. The district features a dynamic blend of arts, culture, creativity, and culinary experiences that showcase the essence of San Diego’s cultural heritage.
WANT TO PAINT?
The community is invited to paint with artist Scarlett Baily as she paints from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, and again on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
