Burnside Mural
Title: Reclaiming Islais Creek
Artist(s): Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong, Twin Walls Mural Company
Date completed: September 2022
Site: Burnside Avenue cul-de-sac, at Paradise Avenue. Painted on a publicly-owned retaining wall.
Subject: Glen Park History and celebration of canyon natural life
Funding source(s): Individual contributors
Overview
Identified as an opportune spot for public art during COVID-era walks, the large retaining wall at the end of Burnside Avenue is home to a colorful mural, Reclaiming Islais Creek, that takes its subject matter directly from the neighborhood’s history and natural environment. The project is a tribute to a trio of women who, in the 1960s, stopped this area from turning into a freeway. Known as the “Gum Tree Girls,” for the many eucalyptus trees that would have been destroyed, they are credited with saving the neighborhood and its canyon.
Artwork
The mural depicts the beauty of Glen Canyon on the main wall, while using the side wall to highlight the neighborhood’s history. The artists, whose work has been in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, are passionate about the subject of their work. They delved into learning the area’s history, reading through archives, conducting interviews, and taking guided walks with the neighborhood historian. The mural’s title, “Reclaiming Islais Creek,” recognizes the waterway that travels deep underneath the wall and was once the primary source of water in San Francisco.
On the front wall, the mural shows the animals and plants, past and present, of Glen Canyon. A treasure of wildlife in the city, it is home to red-tailed hawks, hummingbirds, coyotes, horned owls, and the San Francisco garter snake. The artists also honor the animals that inhabited the area in the past.
The artists used the side wall, which extends up five flights of stairs, to depict the history of the area, from early indigenous peoples to current neighborhood favorites like Bird & Beckett bookshop and Canyon Market. It includes some of the neighborhood’s first real estate advertisements, trolley cars, the first suffrage march, and aeronauts from when the canyon hosted a circus.
Timeline
December 2020: Idea of mural/tiled stairway presented to Glen Park Association
August 2021: Selection of Twin Walls Mural Company as artists
September - November 2021: Artists research neighborhood history, including interviews with primary and secondary sources
January 2022: San Francisco Arts Commission approval of design
September 2022: Mural complete
