The giant, vibrant green mural alongside the MidPen Housing complex on 11th Street is now complete, according to the City of Union City.
The captivating mural — a fiddlneck wildflower that stretches from top to bottom on the north side of the Station Center wall — was designed and painted by San Francisco artist Mona Caron.
Though most of the mural was completed in November when the Station Center was unveiled, it was missing a key piece.
The base of the mural now features the word “welcome” in several different languages at its root and vignettes that illustrate the city’s agricultural past and its vision for the future.
Those final touches were the result of a public workshop held late last year. Children suggested including words from every language spoken by residents of the Station Center, according to a City of Union City newsletter.
“Everyone here has roots in different parts of the world, and together we grow and blossom as a community,” said Elias, a 9-year-old Station Center resident of Moroccan descent, in the newsletter.
Not only did the residents and youth help conceptualize the mural’s international roots, they helped paint it, too.
Caron noted on her Facebook page that Station Center residents would walk up to her and offer ideas for “welcome” messages while she was painting.
“People just come and contribute them on the fly,” Caron wrote in a Facebook post before the mural was completed. “Some write them on a piece of paper, others add them directly to the wall. So far, mothers, teenagers, men at work, and seniors have come to contribute a welcoming phrase in their language. It's fun when they each return with a gaggle of their peers to show it off.”
“One lady asked her brother in Taiwan, a calligraphy artist, to stylize a mandarin ‘welcome’ is his own hand lettering especially for this mural,” Caron added. “I'm relieved to say I apparently did an ok job copying it onto the wall.”
Area residents also helped come up with the images depicted in the vignettes.
Caron incorporated ideas from the residents’ collective vision, such as a farmers’ market, soccer field and a pedestrian bridge leading to the BART station.
The mural can be seen at the Station Center at 34888 11th St.
For photos of the mural and the artists’ firsthand, visit her Facebook page here.
Have you seen the mural? What do you think of it? Tell us in the comments.
