One of the highlights of the 75th-anniversary celebration of the United Portuguese S.E.S. in Point Loma on April 15 was the dedication of an outdoor mural painted by Jack Stricker and Austin Gosswiller.

The historic milestone at the Portuguese Hall at 2818 Avenida De Portugal was observed on a Saturday evening. The commemoration involved a Diamond & Pearl Cocktail Party featuring heavy appetizers, wine, music, and presentations.

One of those presentations was performed outside around the corner of the historic building with the public unveiling of the new two-sided mural painted by Stricker and Gosswiller. A collaboration between UPSES and the Point Loma Association, a nonprofit spearheading community beautification, and improvement, the new mural is a re-creation of “azulejos,” blue-and-white Portuguese tiles using acrylic paint.

“We worked on the mural for about 60 hours, sometimes late into the night,” said Stricker, adding UPSES “just wanted something new on the walls and it just worked out perfectly.”

“It was fun to re-create it (tiles),” concurred Gosswiller, who has worked with Stricker on a couple of murals since last year. “We’ve got a few more projects lined up,” he added.

Stricker has also done murals in Liberty Station and Ocean Beach. His OB mural depicts pitcher Joe Musgrove of the Padres.

Gosswiller pointed out he and Stricker have been acquainted since fifth or sixth grade having both grown up in Ocean Beach. “He’s a good friend of my brother’s and that’s how we connected,” Stricker said.

Noting he knows UPSES board members who’ve “been wanting something (art) here for a long long time,” Stricker added the board at first wanted them to do a tuna fishermen scene. “But I thought it would be a little too busy,” he said adding the board then left it up to them as to what they’d like to do.

“These tiles are everywhere in Portugal,” pointed out Stricker. “This one (azulejos) I’ve never seen in Point Loma, and I just thought it would be unique and bold. It’s our own design that we came up with. You can see it both ways from the street.”

Of their mural’s color scheme, Gosswiller said: “During the age of discovery blue and white was a popular color, a symbol of wealth and power.”

Stricker noted their UPSES mural was something of a departure for them. “This is more like a design than an actual art painting: There are no portraits,” he said.

Stricker started out doing graffiti before learning how to oil paint at San Diego State University. “I kind of fused the two together a little bit,” he said.

Gosswiller agreed art has always attracted him. “That’s what I excelled in,” he said. “I kind of got into the industry (murals) in restaurant life. But it wasn’t until the COVID shutdown that I wanted to follow my passion and see if I could make a living off of this. That’s when I really dove into it.”

Things are working out well now for both artists. “I’ve been doing it (murals) 15 years or so around here,” Stricker said adding, “It took a while to actually get jobs lined up consistently. But now I have no problem.”

The mural duo is presently in discussions with Petco Park downtown to do six baseball-themed murals for the breweries at the ballpark. “It’s in the works,” noted Gosswiller, who gave a shout-out to the PLA on their UPSES mural. “They helped collaborate with the Portuguese Hall on funding this.”

“They (PLA) paid for half of it,” noted Stricker.

“We’d like to thank them (PLA) for supporting local artists, and hopefully we’ll get to work with them more,” concluded Gosswiller.

FESTA

The 113th Festa do Espirito Santo is scheduled for Sunday, May 28.