SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (publ. 11/14/2015, pg. A4)



A Scott Herhold column incorrectly reported the first name of mural artist Jeff Hemming’s wife. It is Megan.

Jeff Hemming, an artist who teaches at UC Santa Cruz, had planned to spend this past Tuesday afternoon in downtown San Jose, where local officials were celebrating the completion of his 140-foot long mural on the wall of the Lido nightclub.

Hemming had a passable excuse for breaking the date. His wife, Megan, went early into labor on Monday night and delivered twin girls Tuesday morning. When I interviewed him Wednesday, everything was still so new that the couple hadn’t settled on names.

The name of his mural won’t be as elusive. Officially, the $20,000 project is called “Phylum of the Free,” a poetic reference to an animal classification. Unofficially, people will call it the Mural with the Giraffes. And Hemming is just fine with that.

On battle-scarred Fountain Alley, where the homeless rub elbows with drug dealers, Hemming is trying to underscore the contrast between the slick technology of Silicon Valley and the yearning for beautiful, natural places.

“I feel like there’s this struggle to maintain the balance,” the 38-year-old artist told me. “I feel like it’s really polarized.”

His 4,125-quare foot mural was funded by an unusual collection of folks — the DA’s office, the night club, the San Jose Downtown Association, and Republic Services, which has the nearby Dumpsters. Part of the goal is to pre-empt graffiti artists with a real piece of art.

Changing ambience

“It’s amazing how some paint and an artist’s imagination can transform and uplift our surroundings,” said DA Jeff Rosen, whose office contributed $5,000 collected in asset forfeitures — essentially, fines paid by bad guys. “If this reduces 5 or 10 percent of drug traffic, it will have paid for itself.”

On the left of the mural, Hemming pays homage to science: Scientists seem to be examining a space capsule. Farther to the right rests a collage of shiny aerodynamic equipment. Still farther right are two surfers. And in the middle are three giraffes.

Why giraffes? Hemming explains that there’s a practical reason first. The 30-foot tall figures lend the piece a vertical component that breaks up the long horizontal flow of the wall.

In a darker way, the artist thinks they give viewers the sense that someone is watching them. In Hemming’s take, they recall the surveillance state. The middle giraffe has a kind of antenna atop his head in place of antlers.

“I ended up working from left to right,” explains Hemming, who painted the mural while mounted on a scissors lift. “At first, everyone was commenting on the scientists. As soon as the giraffes went up, the focal point changed.”

Recognition

A few things are readily recognizable: One of the two surfers is a well-known figure: Kelly Slater, a professional who has won numerous titles. Hemming himself is a surfer and spent 12 years in Hawaii.

But maybe the best thing about the mural is that it lets viewers pick out what they want to see. I’ve gone back several times and seen something different each time.

The monthlong experience of doing the painting — he used no spray paint — was a rich one for Hemming, even though he says he never quite got used to the swaying of the lift.

“If it makes that space a little more comfortable to be in, I’m all for it,” he told me. “Hopefully people will respect it. Hopefully, it will stand the test of time.”

Contact Scott Herhold at 408-275-0917 or sherhold@mercurynews.com. Twitter.com/scottherhold.