A crowd of art-loving onlookers at Friday\u2019s inaugural Dockside Dazzle was nothing short of amazed by the sight of a 20-foot, 9,000-pound sculpture propped at Mare Island\u2019s Dry Dock No. 1 boar.<\/p>\n
Hosted at the Mare Island Historic Core, the day\u2019s highlight was captured by one key concept: artistic expression.<\/p>\n
At the forefront of the event was San Francisco-based artist Zulu Heru, unveiling his towering piece, \u201cFarmer the Rigger.\u201d The piece \u2014 described as his \u201cself-portrait sculpture\u201d \u2014 represents his vocational journey from his start as a farmer in Richmond, Va., to his current career as a certified rigger and crane operator based in the Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people look at art, and they just see it as a dream or sport, but I don\u2019t, Heru told the crowd. \u201cI see my practice as half art, half engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using primarily reclaimed materials, including industrial metals and glass, the piece demonstrates a symbol of his lifetime trades, from farmer to serving in the military, then later, crane operator and artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sculpture tells my trajectory,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Providing the backdrop for the evening, along with spirits and hearty eats, was Redwood Empire Whiskey Bar & Tasting Room. Organizers Mare Island Company, meanwhile, ensured that artistry was on display at every turn.<\/p>\n
Aside from Heru\u2019s much-anticipated unveiling, 10 Bay Area artists participated in live demonstrations throughout the evening.<\/p>\n
Building on its partnership with Local Edition Creative through its local sculptural and mural program, Mare Island Company brought together the group of creators to showcase their own interpretations of \u201cartistic expression\u201d in real time.<\/p>\n
Using old wine barrels as their canvases, artists including Jesse Hernandez, Brian Arriaga of Concord and Native American artist Felicia Galbadon showcased their individual styles and techniques.<\/p>\n
Hernandez, also known as \u201cUrban Aztec,\u201d is a lifelong Bay Area artist who works across a variety of mediums, though he has a particular affinity for spray paint.<\/p>\n
His barrel was one of two to display the distinct airy strokes that could only come from an aluminum can.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m rocking a little mural right now, kinda my version of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent \u2014 Aztec culture,\u201d he said, pointing to a common theme in his art.<\/p>\n
Hernandez has painted murals and worked with several sports teams. He also helped design the San Francisco Giants\u2019 \u201cGigantes\u201d jerseys, another example of his work incorporating Aztec-inspired imagery.<\/p>\n
For the seasoned artist, creating in front of a live audience comes with its own perk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn painting murals, you\u2019re always out in public where anything could happen, right? You\u2019re exposed to whoever walks up to you. The live stuff is always fun \u2014 sometimes it\u2019s about the interactions even more than the finished piece,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Just a few barrels down was Oakland-based artist Delilah Borg, aka \u201cArt by Bugz,\u201d working on an expanded demonstration of her series, \u201cBlooming Beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her piece, a delicate acrylic display of a young woman \u2014 eyes closed \u2014 garnering a bursting bouquet, is about \u201cwomen empowerment,\u201d explains Borg.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to include the flowers, because as women we all grow and we become this beautiful thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s growth, and womanhood, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an artist who is relatively new to the live art scene, Borg described the added pressure of creating with an active audience watching. But, like Hernandez, she also sees an opportunity for connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun, you know? More lively, and over time it gets easier,\u201d she chuckled. \u201cThere\u2019s huge exposure to the community, and that\u2019s really what I do art for \u2014 the community around me that supports this.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the event has come and gone, the artwork created that evening will remain on display. Both the painted barrels and Heru\u2019s Afrocentric sculpture, \u201cFarmer the Rigger,\u201d will stand in front of the Redwood Empire Whiskey site, serving as a semi-permanent reminder of the Bay Area\u2019s undeniable artistic talent \u2014 and the community that continues to create it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crowd of art-loving onlookers at Friday\u2019s inaugural Dockside Dazzle was nothing short of amazed by the sight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,967,23,100,180,993,266,101,103,102,104,106,105,2720,420,3627],"class_list":["post-427642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-solano-county","tag-things-to-do","tag-vallejo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}