By Cameron Macdonald | [email protected]
PUBLISHED: December 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM PST
Vladimir Cuevas’ mural cannot be overlooked on Kerner Boulevard in San Rafael.
The two-story array of fiery oranges, lavenders, turquoises and violets catches the eye along the street, where Cuevas is painting the mural on the building of EO Products, a skin care company.
“When the sun hits it, it will be pretty fantastic,” the company’s director, Max Geiser, said while watching the artist work.
Cuevas and other Bay Area artists are collaborating with the Canal Arts, a nonprofit, to decorate buildings in the Canal neighborhood and showcase the diverse community culture. The project is supported by a $100,000 grant from the Pirkle Jones Fund of the Marin Community Foundation.
“The whole idea is to bring some interesting public color into the Canal,” said Rich Storek, executive director of the Canal Arts.
The Canal Arts has completed nine art projects in the neighborhood. They include rooftop murals for Canal Alliance and a project that involved 10 artists who created a large welcome message near the corner of Kerner and Bellam boulevards.
For the EO Products artwork, staff members collaborated with Cuevas on ideas before he began painting in early December.
“We wanted something that was not just about us, but really reflected the community,” Geiser said.
Cuevas showed a small piece of paper that displayed the final design. The center has a flower-shaped sun that displays the message, “Love Everyone.” The sun shines over a lavender field and the stone head of the Mixtec rain god Dzahui. A thunderstorm is above the sun.
Cuevas, a San Francisco artist who is from Oaxaca, Mexico, said the design has a harmonious balance of cool colors representing the forces of nature and warm colors symbolizing humanity.
“We want to make this city beautiful,” he said before climbing back up a scaffold to resume painting.
Geiser said he enjoys seeing Cuevas’ work evolve.
“Every morning, I see something new, and every time I leave, I see something new again,” he said. “That is the joy of the process. What is it really going to look like in the end?”
Cuevas previously partnered with artist Oscar Morales and the Canal Arts to create the “Peoples of the Canal” mural that adorns the Albert J. Boro Community Center on Canal Street.
For a recent Canal Arts project, Morales and artist Jinjer Nelson went to Belvedere Street and painted a mural on a 100-foot wide wall that depicts sailboats on the San Francisco Bay. There is also a Mayan pattern at the bottom of the painting that highlights the neighborhood’s Guatemalan culture, Morales said.
“We wanted to give them something to represent them,” he said.
Nelson hopes the mural will inspire viewers.
“I think that everyone is an artist, and when people look at this I think it could inspire them to find some creativity in their lives,” she said.
Children assisted both artists by painting background colors with rollers, Nelson said. The project was finished in 13 days.
The mural decorates a wall for Farallon Electronics, a company at the corner of Belvedere and Verdi streets that specializes in equipment for sailboats.
“It’s nice we have something that represents the work we do in a fun, artistic way,” said Yev Ossipov, the company’s co-owner.
Ossipov said the formerly white wall had attracted graffiti. He hopes it won’t be vandalized again.
“I imagine that most people who drive down Belvedere are not aware of what we do,” Ossipov said. “We do enjoy being a part of making the city beautiful.”
