Muralist Isabel Halpern Describes How Big Brush Strokes Are Making San Diego More Colorful

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

As the mural program manager for ArtReach in Hillcrest, artist Isabel Halpern has helped create more than 60 eye-popping wall paintings throughout San Diego County over the past five years.

A resident of North Park, she started working at ArtReach in 2015 as a “teaching artist” before moving into her current position in 2019, when the organization’s mural program launched. In years prior, she seemingly readied herself for the national mural trend we are currently seeing by earning her degree in Studio Arts from UC Berkeley and working as an intern muralist in Philadelphia.

In cities everywhere, including San Diego, there is no end in sight for mural-making, which lends a vibrant air of creativity to neighborhoods while conveying positive, cultural messages tailored to specific communities.

Downtown Condo Guys: What is ArtReach? And how long has it been around?

Halpern: The organization started in 2008. It’s located in Hillcrest, at the corner of University and Vermont. It has three main programs: an in-class school program where we teach art through a social and emotional lens; our community program, which features art workshops in our headquarter space; and the mural program. We have 12 full-time staff, about eight mural-artist partners, and anywhere from five to 10 teaching artists.

Downtown Condo Guys: What does your job entail as manager of ArtReach’s mural program?

Halpern: I work to develop community-based mural programs with schools, businesses and other organizations to create murals with groups of people from start to finish. This also includes working with our mural artist partners to create murals that sometimes represent the actual folks we are working with.

Downtown Condo Guys: Who are your typical clients for murals?

Halpern: We create murals for schools, commercial spaces, housing spaces, and other community organizations.

Downtown Condo Guys: How many artists typically work on a medium to large-size mural?

Halpern: It can be anywhere from a small group of 10 and up to 150 people. Every project involves a group of people from the community ranging from students to community participants. All of our projects are very collaborative. It can take many of us to get the beautiful work done.

Downtown Condo Guys: What are some of ArtReach’s most recent murals around town?

Halpern: One of them is in the East Village at David’s Harp Foundation, which is a center for youth to learn about video and music production. The mural is outside the entrance to their building. It was designed by Regan Russell, one of our mural artist partners who we’ve been working with for the last five years. It was created with the youth who are part of David’s Harp. Tohe mural features musical notes and a metamorphosis of a caterpillar changing into a butterfly to represent the transformation kids go through in their programs.

We also just completed one in Hillcrest at our own headquarters. It was created to represent our work as an organization, which welcomes all people into our space and the significance they bring to the Hillcrest neighborhood. The mural features a parade of people walking to represent the San Diego Pride parade. It’s led by a child to symbolize all of the work we do with youth. There is also a disco ball and the words “Ignite Creativity.” The mural is about 18 feet high and 40 feet wide.

Downtown Condo Guys: Who decides on the themes and concepts for the murals? And what does a mural cost to create?

Halpern: We gather input from our partner sites, which is the biggest part of the process. They are the ones who are going to be around the murals all the time. Prices are dependent on the specific sites. It depends on the size of the mural, the texture of the walls, how much materials we need to buy, and whether we need to rent equipment.

We use the highest grade materials and a protective sealer to make sure the murals last a very long time. We don’t remove or restore murals; we always work from fresh spaces.

Downtown Condo Guys: What has been the most challenging mural you’ve worked on locally?

Halpern: It was at the Lemon Grove Public Library. It’s a beautiful mural that we painted onto a rough wall texture—like raw stucco. It was very difficult, but we are really happy with how it turned out.

Downtown Condo Guys: How does painting a wall mural differ from painting an image on a canvas and easel?

Halpern: We are working on larger scales so the work is more physical. We’re standing on ladders and climbing scaffolds. The paints are different too. We use exterior house paint instead of fine-art paint. One of our goals is to always create clean lines so there isn’t any fuzziness. We’ve all learned over the years to paint in a way that requires long, clean brushstrokes.

Downtown Condo Guys: What’s the largest mural you have worked on so far?

Halpern: It was in Escondido, at a transitional housing space for youth transitioning out of homelessness. The center has two buildings, so there are two murals. One is over 40 feet tall, and the other is about 20 feet tall. They feature plants such as agave and prickly pear cactus to symbolize the resilience of the people who work there. And there are background motifs of topography lines meant to symbolize the journeys of the youth.

Downtown Condo Guys: Did you take up painting at an early age?

Halpern: Yes. Since I was a kid I was drawn to art. I grew up in Ventura, CA. My earliest memory was in first grade and getting a brand new set of wax crayons with many colors. I was so excited that they were given to me by my school. I had a natural interest in art. I was lucky that my mom had sent me to an art week, where I got to work in clay. And then in high school, I selected art as my elective for all four years. Two of those years were in advance-placement art. It was also during high school that I first tried painting in a more intentional, serious way.

Downtown Condo Guys: What was your first completed painting on canvas?

Halpern: It was when I was in high school—a painting series that focused on suburban neighborhoods showing their sterility and isolation. It would be fun to revisit that and do it again.

Downtown Condo Guys: When did you first start noticing a resurgence in outdoor murals?

Halpern: From my perspective, in the last five to 10 years. But murals have always been important tools in social and political movements going as far back to the 50s and 60s. I feel murals will be relevant for a really long time because there’s a need for people to have opportunities to connect with each other. And our projects provide that connection.

Downtown Condo Guys: Any murals on the drawing board that we will soon see around San Diego?

Halpern: Yes. We have a lot on the books, but we are still planning things out and solidifying their details so I can’t talk about any of them yet.