It was always clear that a mural on the back of the teen center would be representational of where we are. I mean, you hear locals and tourists talking about how beautiful and special Point Reyes is all the time. The initial ideas thrown around always came back to taking the landmarks and things that we’re known for and stylizing them to be young and hip. To be honest, the designs that came out of that were garbage. And that’s okay. It made me realize that when I was growing up, I didn’t care about any of the beautiful spaces people travel from so far away to see. I still don’t really care about these things, and none of them are what I think of when people ask me about my hometown. It probably wasn’t the first thing the following generation of Point Reyesins thought of, either.

It’s a no-brainer: Involve the students in all phases of the mural project, from design to painting to unveiling. Duh. It is a fully kid-centered thing. They determine what’s important and provide answers to all the big questions. My job is to advocate for what they ask and professionally carry out a 32-foot painting. Super simple stuff. Besides, one of the original goals of the teen center was to give youth a place of their own. When it was starting out in 2011, the founders held meetings asking us what we wanted to see this space turn into. So why not continue to reclaim the space through art? Who’d have thought.

The Heart Map Project took place in the spring and was on display in the Artists in the Schools show in June. Essentially, it’s a map of memories and favorite places. When I introduced the project to the middle schoolers at West Marin School, I asked them to draw those memories and favorite places within Point Reyes, starting with their home and then branching out from there. After each class, I would draw something inspired by what we talked about that day. The next time I was in the classroom, I’d show them those drawings. They’d give blunt feedback, we’d have nostalgic conversations about the best events and businesses in town, and they would continue working on their maps. This cycle repeated for the next few weeks until the end of the school year, when I presented them with our final design to be painted in the fall.

There are a couple of ways to look at this design. From the road, it’s just a landscape. There are some cows, Black Mountain, lots of green interrupted by electric colors in flowers. Closer up, the viewer gets sucked into a 30-foot game of I Spy, Point Reyes Station edition. “No Barking” signs, the tree that sat at the center of town, Far West Fest, Timmy’s tow truck, Path of Lights, Toby’s oranges, and that cow that kept breaking into the school field last year. Even the flowers are not just flowers. Each one is made of a food item from a restaurant or bakery downtown. Pizzas from Café Reyes, ice cream cones from the Palace, morning buns and chocolate chip cookies from the Bovine, popovers and those lil’ pats of butter from the Station House. It’s all the good stuff. The things that were brought up over and over in the middle school art class in the spring. Some of the absolute best parts of our town. 

The title of the mural was also a student suggestion. Over the seven weeks of painting with the middle schoolers, they came up with about 10 potential titles. As a group, they took a vote (anonymously, of course). “Yo Mama is a Point Reyesin” won by 11. A few students, who were exposed to the flip side of our lil’ artist democracy, didn’t vote for the title and consistently expressed their disdain for the chosen name. I will tell you what I told some of them. Yes, I agree, the name is ridiculous, childish, and maybe too much of a joke. However, that kind of makes “Yo Mama is a Point Reyesin” a perfect title. The mural was always going to be colorful and silly, at least the way I always saw it coming together. Without viewing our world through a ridiculous lens, how else could a West Marin landscape possibly end up with foliage made of junk food?

Yes, West Marin is beautiful. I mean, we grow up being able to look out our windows with full views of nature that some people have only ever seen as backgrounds on their computers. When people visit our town, they tell us how beautiful and special and unique it is, and they’re not wrong. I just think they’re missing the mark a little. I know this place is special because of our community and the people who continue to keep it alive. Teachers, artists, musicians, tree cutters, parents, kids, teens, business owners, the bakeries that prepare our coffee in the morning and the restaurants that serve our dinners in the evening. They are the people who create the memories that shape our childhoods. Who throw the classic Point Reyes events that are going live somewhere in the back of our brains forever. It’s just a fact that our town is continuing to change, and we’ve seen some of our favorite people come and go. But today we continue to celebrate what we created together. It’s a map of our memories hidden in plain sight. And it’s all the things that we will always have in common with each other.