Art, History, and Community: Inside Barstow’s Main Street Murals

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Hey everybody, this is Howard and I am back here. We're still at the new Centennial Mural, and I have the pleasure of introducing you to really some very important folks who are not only affiliated with this piece of art behind me, but also very much a part of the whole history of the murals. And I'm sitting right next to Juliet. Right? And next to Juliet is Ray.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

How are you doing folks? Ray Vias.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

And next to Ray Vias is Kathy Fierro. Kathy Fiero. So Ray, Juliet, Ray, and Kathy. Now, first off, Juliet, what is your affiliation with the murals? I started the mural program in mid-90s. Mid-90s. Now, does this surprise you of how popular and really influential these murals have been to Barstow and to the surrounding community?

SPEAKER_03 1:06

No, I was originally up here with Shimano's British Columbia when they had a big program.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Excellent. By the way, I do know where Shimana's is at Victoria Island, right? That's right. Excellent. My sister lived there. Oh, beautiful. Now, Ray, how long have you been a part of the Barstow community?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

The Barstow community. I've been here since 1991, so about like 32 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

And Kathy, how long have you been a part of the community?

SPEAKER_03 1:38

We moved here in 1984.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

1984. And what's your affiliation with Barstow and the murals?

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Well, Julie got got me involved with the very first mural. Yeah. And um I've been painting murals the whole time. I'm the president right now of Main Street murals.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

So you are the president of Main Street murals.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Okay, so you get the boss uh uh no we try to work as a group. I was kind of joking. I do that once in a while, I anchor Jane.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

So how did you get involved in painting the murals?

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Um well Juliet was looking for artists who weren't afraid to paint big. And I was doing the sets for the Christmas and Easter program at my church, and they're big. So somebody dropped my name and she gave me a call.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

And the rest is history.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

The rest is history.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

And Juliet, how has the history of the murals here in Barstow, what does it feel like to see their evolution? And you know, periodically there's gonna be a launch of or the unveiling, so to speak, of a new mural. How does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Makes me feel very well. I um hope I live long enough to see them all.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Excellent, excellent. And Ray, you are the artist for this particular mural. So how did you get the inspiration behind this or what did you present that to Main Street murals? This is what I'd like to do.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Well, as you can see, uh that's actually a Barstow sky, Barstow landscape, pretty much everything uh I saw in pictures uh from Barstow. I took pictures of of that sky, which is kind of like a blue, pink, orange. Uh and that's our natural uh land here and stuff like that. And of course, uh we are we are the caretakers of this corridor of Route 66, so we we had to do something, you know, that looked nice, and uh and it would pop out basically and really come out of the wall.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Okay, and how does it feel to know that your piece of art is right here on the wall, and every day more and more people are coming by to see it.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

It feels great for the part where like uh for one, we're uh we're advertising Route 66, and the other two is we're advertising the arts on how art and if I could inspire another artist to do the same thing how I got inspired at one time, hey, that's just planting the seed over and over of art.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

I love it. Now I noticed when you were kind of helping me move some equipment over, your daughter was here. Has she been inspired by dad's work and is she getting involved?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yes, actually, she painted some of these bushes and rocks uh because that's the tedious work of dabbing, you know, pebbles and and bushes of just dabbing just bushes, bushes, bushes, you know, and she did most of the dabbing.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Excellent, excellent. Juliet, what would you like to say to visitors who are coming to Barstow, or why should visitors come to Barstow and see these murals?

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Well, we've we've been trying to do them in uh historical what's the word I order. Historical order.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

So you can go from space age and Stone Age, Stone Age, yeah, close. Stone Age to the Space Age. Okay, very good.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

So I hope they'll come and see all of them.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Excellent. Kathy, as as we are now at the Centennial, where would you like to see the the murals kind of continue to progress?

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Well, we have parameters. Um the historical murals in Barstor are supposed to be between 1st Street and 7th Street on both sides of Maine. We are the last bit of Main Street USA. Every other part of Route 66 has changed their name to another name. We're the last bit that's still Main Street. And um our hope is to put another 30 murals up.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Excellent, excellent. Now I know you're gonna need help putting those 30 murals up, and I'd like to bring in real quickly a woman that's been very instrumental in helping to get the word out. Jane, why don't you come on around here and stand next to uh uh over here? Excellent. And so, Jane, how how does this make you feel? Like you get to come here and periodically throughout the months, the weeks, the weekends, beautiful weekend like today, and just kind of show people around.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Well, it's lovely to have worked with the development of the mural uh program to work with numerous people from different ages, from young to old, to have a lovely Juliet here, which was our founder, but really creating a mural gallery that is open 24-7 is great for the community, but it's also amazing for tourists that are coming out and traveling through the high desert because they get to capture an essence of the history from Stone Age to Space Age of the Barstow community, and then also appreciate the artistic community in the area. So we also do a lot of educational outreach here, and we also have uh an electric box design program that we do in schools, so it's quite diverse the program that Main Street murals does, it's not just the murals, but I must say that this year with our centennial, we love the mural that Ray has completed. We're looking forward to the car show that is coming out where we will have a dedication in October, and we have so many other opportunities with special events that we work with with the city who we are incredibly appreciative because they are our main sponsor, and you know, you want to keep a community alive, keep it alive with art, with history, and with kind of passion for the arts with our youth, and that's basically what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Excellent, excellent. If our listeners of this podcast episode would like to learn more about Barstow and Juliet and Kathy and the Main Street murals, where is the best place for them to go?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

So if you go to Main Street Murals on Facebook, we also have a Main Street Murals website. And then also periodically the City of Barstow post events and details on their website, which is City of Barstow. And um yeah, and then also we host the Main Street Mural Tour, which we are doing today on the third Saturday of every month, and it's at 11 a.m. And it is hosted from the fountain at the US Bank, and it's a super fun tour. We love to do group tours uh for anything from schools to groups and churches and just people that are traveling through the area, but if people go on the site, they can see the telephone number to call, and that's the best uh way to contact us. Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

Ray, where if our listeners would like to learn more about your artistic work, is there a website, social sites that you'd like them to visit?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, on Instagram, Raimundo Artwork, Raimundo Vallez Artwork, uh, and then along with uh also with the mainstream mural, uh you'll see.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Excellent. Well, we'll put all those links uh in our show notes uh for this episode. So, Juliet, Kathy, uh Ray, Jane, thank you so much for joining us today. All right, folks, we're gonna call it a wrap at this particular site. We're gonna uh get some water, get out of the sun, refresh the batteries. But I hope you're enjoying this uh really live on-site uh interview here in Barstow as we are embarking on the tour.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

All right, folks, we'll gonna take a stagecoach.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

And we're gonna take a stagecoach, which we will see. Take care now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies, thank you very much. Thank you.