John Hiemstra, scenic artist: handpainted custom murals, unique faux finishes, fine & applied arts

custom murals, unique faux finishes,
fine art by John Hiemstra, scenic artist and California licensed painting contractor #826564

The Sherman Heights Neighborhood Design Arts Team came into being through a grant opportunity provided by the City of San Diego's Commission for Arts and Culture and the willingness of the transportation authority SANDAG to collaborate with an outside group to enhance planned upgrades at the Cesar E. Chavez Trolley Station.

This unprecedented collaboration was orchestrated by team member Louise Torio, Sherman Heights resident, passionate neighborhood activist, and contract co-ordinator at SANDAG.

As one of the team leaders, I helped design the 20 foot tall eagle landmark proudly anchoring the station today at the corner of 25th Street, Commercial Street and Cesar Chavez Parkway, as well as shepard our designs into reality with local contractors Westech Metal Fabrication, El Dorado Sandblasting and Painting, and Innovative Cutting Designs, Inc.

My primary contribution to the project, though, was the design and production of over two hundred square feet of narrative tile mosiac that portrays the life story of Cesar Chavez across the new sweeping curved benches that were installed along the length of the platforms.

In addition to the twelve narrative bench mosiacs, I also created a series of illustrations in tile depicting the agricultural workers to whom Chavez dedicated his life's work.

I collected, cut and assembled all of the tile in these mosaics by hand in my Sherman Heights studio. The mosiacs were then set into the concrete benches (already part of the SANDAG upgrade) provided by Dan Diaz, a local tile contractor expert in mosaic installation.

tile mosiac at the Cesar Chavez Trolley Station, San Diego, CA

Please scroll down to view my original illustrations for these mosiac designs, and click each image to see pictures of the corresponding final installation.