By Jessica Benda,
Contributing Writer
The restoration of two Fullerton murals is nearly complete, and now officials are scouting funding to restore more of the murals in the Lemon Park area.
“The Town I Live In” and “Brown Car” are among the most visible of the nearly 50-year-old murals, most of which are painted on a pedestrian bridge on Lemon Street north of Orangethorpe Avenue. Local artist Drew Stirdivant started restoration of those two in early August and this week was close to finishing.
Six murals date back to 1978, when teacher David Whalen and local students painted them as part of a local youth project. Renown local muralist Emigdio Vasquez Sr. added two more in the ’90s with the help of at-risk youth. The panels draw from the Mexican-American heritage that is predominate in the surrounding community.
Prior to the current restorations, the last mural to receive a touch-up was “Niños del Mundo” in 2019, restored by Emigdio “Higgy” Vasquez Jr., son of Vasquez Sr. With the latest double-mural restoration, the project is nearly at the halfway point.
The eight-mural endeavor carries a $10,000 to $20,000 price tag per mural restoration, officials estimated. Councilman Ahmad Zahra, who included attention to the murals as part of his 2018 campaign, has been spearheading recent fundraising efforts.
“After things settled down after the pandemic, there was really no funding from the city for anything like this, so I decided to raise the funds independently,” Zahra said. “We set up a special donation link and special accounts for the murals through the city, which people could donate directly into.”
Community efforts totaled $12,000 for the current restoration, including hefty donations from the Orange County Employee Association, Fullerton Firefighters Association, Fullerton Police Officers Association and a local barber shop.
But for some murals, restoration is impossible. Decades-long neglect has rendered the paint too…
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