Sacramento Street Art

Sacramento has been hosting an annual street art festival called Wide Open Walls (WOW), during which dozens of fine artists have created murals on local towers, buildings, and fences.  Albeit quite controversial to some, these sometimes bizarre but always fascinating works of art, ranging up to thousands of square feet in size, are uniquely welcome additions to the city landscape as far as I am concerned.  The plethora of such artwork cropping up in other cities these days suggests that others agree.

Being unaware of any festival-related matters at first, however, I had resolved to utilize the slowdown from the coronavirus scare to explore the town on my bicycle in the relative comfort and safety of reduced traffic.  Encountering many of the WOW productions, I also discovered a wealth of other murals, graffiti and metal sculptures — much of it in the 60+ miles of back alleys in the central part of town.

I scoured them all.  Not being a habitual alleycat yourself, however, you never would encounter most of these alternative works of 'art' first-hand; so I would share a few hidden treasures that might be unpublished elsewhere.

Although information, photographs, and locations of the WOW murals can be found at wideopenwalls.com and many other sites, I have posted some of my own renditions anyway.

Let's get started with some personal favorites.  This first one, new in 2021, is located at the downtown County Administration complex — a 30' × 40' marvel that commemorates the Lower American River.

Try to find all the creatures listed below, as well as 13 humans    ⇔

(includes six corrections to the listing at waterforum.org)

Partial to bears and meadows...

...and butterflies

Don't know what these guys are about, but they sure are cute

Waterfalls are the best thing

Strangely captivating

Under-appreciated in a back alley

Tree lovers are all right

Call me a sentimental softie if you must; but for my money the best mural in Sacramento sits relatively unappreciated in South Side Park, well away from the street and beside a third-story window:

The Ted's World  Grand Prize winner

There are hundreds more graphics to view.  Click and Double-click on any image to enlarge it.