Acclaimed Petaluma painter and muralist Max Bala has completed his latest large-scale art piece in town, adding to a whole series of murals at such spots as Lagunitas Brewing Company and McNear Elementary School. This one is an industrial-themed mural, unfolding across the north side of the Career Technical Education building at Petaluma High School.
Max Bala has completed a new mural celebrating the trades programs at Petaluma High School. (Max Bala)
Over the course of 13 working days in July, Bala has been painstakingly spray-painting the spectacular new open-air art piece — which he said is visible from a half-mile away up Fair Street — specifically designed to honor the school’s auto, metal, agriculture and woodworking trades programs and its students.
“I attended PHS almost 15 years ago, and took metal and auto shop trades, right here in this building,” said Bala, noting that the mural has been in the planning stages for over half a decade. “The project was dreamed up by Keith Benson over five years ago, and we’ve finally been able to make the project a reality.”
Benson is PHS’ auto shop and engineering instructor. Funded by the Petaluma High School Auto Shop/Engineering Boosters, the large mural sits just of off Fair Street, and features imagery illustrative of the trade programs, including a bright yellow 1932 Ford Coupe — an intentional tip of the hat (or perhaps a rev of the engine) to the classic movie “American Graffiti,” much of which was filmed in Petaluma.
The car depicted was driven in the film by the now-iconic character John Milner, played by Paul Le Mat, and was prominently featured in the story’s street-cruising and drag-racing scenes.
Max Bala has completed a new mural celebrating the trades programs at Petaluma High School. (Max Bala)
Over the last two weeks, as Bala worked with numerous spray paint cans, on and off a motorized lift, the Petaluma-raised artist has been chronicling his process in a series of Instagram videos. Through those videos, Bala has showed off the progress of the mural, from the early black-and-white outlines of the primary images — a woodworker, a welder, a metalworker and the car — through to its completion.
“Some of the more tricky aspects of the projects included the metal shop student, because there is a drainage pipe on the side of building, running right through the drill press,” he said in one of the videos, filmed partway through, when he still had four days of painting to go. “At this point,” he added, “I’ve gone through dozens and dozens of cans of spray paint.”
His final step was to apply a UV-resistant and weather-resistant clear coating to preserve his work.
“Not only will it still look good in five years,” he said, “it will hopefully look good 15, 20 years down the line as well. That’s the hope at least.”