Larry Maser, a sign maker from the Santa Barbara area, is painting the exterior of Santa Cruz Market in Goleta.
The new mural will portray the Goleta area before development.
“The idea was to create kind of a vision of what the area looked like before development,” Maser said.
The mural is generally a landscape, with a Chumash village in the foreground, and although not completed, Maser said a large condor will fly above the scene and look down at people passing by the market.
“We have a little bit of a seagull problem,” Maser joked, pointing up at two obvious bird-dropping scuffs. He also commented that he was not able to work last week due to the rain.
Maser has done work for Santa Cruz Market manager Tom Modugno before.
Modugno specifically asked that Maser paint Mescaltitlan Island. The ancient island, now only a hill near UCSB’s Campus Point, previously supported a thriving Chumash village.
Maser has painted restaurants and other private buildings in Santa Barbara; however, the City of Santa Barbara rarely approves murals.
“The city is generally against murals,” he said.
On the other hand, Darryl Mimick, associate planner for the City of Goleta, backed the Santa Cruz Market project, which is ongoing and most likely will be completed within the next few weeks.
Santa Cruz Market and the new mural can be found at 5757 Hollister Ave. in Goleta.
— Noozhawk intern Allyson Werner can be reached at awerner@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.