Murals Department: City of Palo Alto
Associate Paintings Conservator Melissa finishing inpainting on Greg Brown’s Garbage Collector, 1977.
Throughout the city of Palo Alto, you can find the signature trompe l’oiel murals by artist Greg Brown (1951-2014). Commissioned by the city in the 1970s with a federal grant for art in public spaces to support unemployed artists, Brown created the “Palo Alto Pedestrian” series. The murals feature humorous vignettes of strange couplings: A garbage collector with an alien in his trashcan, a boy casting his fishing line through a painted window, a UFO crash landing into a bank. The murals are so beloved that the city hosts a scavenger hunt for the community to find each tableau throughout Palo Alto.
The Preservation Arts Murals team has treated several Greg Brown murals in the past, including this work “Garbage Collector” in downtown Palo Alto. Water seeping into fine cracks in the surface of the stucco had led to lifting in the paint layers. This was addressed, along with signs of wear and tear typical of outdoor public murals, with stabilization of the lifting paint, filling of the losses and cracks, and inpainting to bring the garbageman and his alien friend back to life. A final coat of varnish was applied to the full mural to help protect the paint from UV damage.
Before and after treatment.
Detail, before and after treatment.
