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If you’ve driven past the Eureka Theater in recent years, you’ve probably noticed the ever-changing art on its southern wall, along that little alley next to the Morris Graves Museum. Over the years, the wall has served as a blank canvas for aspiring spray paint artists, showcasing kaleidoscopic shapes, fruits, cartoon characters and various renderings of “I like Eureka.”

Earlier this month, the wall underwent yet another transformation, with the debut of “Moderne Art,” a permanent mural that puts student art on center stage.

The mural, created by local spray paint artist and teacher Ananda Oliveri and his daughter, Zaila Rook Barba-Oliveri, depicts a theater stage framed by red velvet curtains and metallic, rail-like motifs inspired by the Eureka Theater’s Streamline Moderne architecture. 

“The folks from the Eureka Theater thought I was the obvious choice to do the mural, because they didn’t want to take the wall away from the spray painting class I teach,” Oliveri told the Outpost in a recent interview. “So, with that in mind, the design was made to accommodate the class and frame their final projects as a presentation piece with the theater curtains … and the design above the mural was inspired by the theater itself. … The tile work at the front of the theater is referenced in the piece as well.”

One of the main features of Streamline Moderne architecture, a late phase of Art Deco design that emerged in the 1930s, is the gently curved aluminum and stainless steel accents and railings. These elements can be found throughout the Eureka Theater.

“Coincidentally, a lot of my recent art has incorporated that three-line motif, so it was like this real kind of synthesis of things,” Oliveri said, referring to the murals he’s done with Faux Real Design Group, a partnership with his cousin Dana Owens. “I wanted to create this faux three-dimensional anamorphic design that stands out when seen from its proper angle.”

The mural project, a partnership between the Eureka Theater and the Humboldt Arts Council, was funded through a grant from the Eureka Cultural Arts District. 

After nearly two decades of making aerosol art and hosting exhibitions through the Accident Gallery in Eureka with his former partner, Phyllis Barba, Oliveri began teaching spray painting at the local juvenile detention center through the Ink People Center for the Arts’ Jump StArts program.

“I had no real teaching experience prior to that, and I said yes because it sounded like a great subversive way to bring spray paint art to a disenfranchised population; the irony still makes me giggle,” he said. “That parlayed into also teaching at the community schools, including McKinleyville, Arcata, Eureka and Fortuna. … I started working at the Morris Graves Museum about five years ago … and I figured I’ve got nothing to do in the summer with school being out, so I started doing classes here.”

Oliveri now teaches three two-week spray painting sessions each summer. Most of his students have zero experience with spray paint, and the first couple classes largely focus on how to hold the paint can properly.

“I’m working with straight novices,” Oliveri laughed. “Some of them are already into drawing or painting, but even still, spray paint is kind of removed from a lot of traditional material. I tell them that I’m not teaching them how to spray paint, I’m teaching them how to think about spray painting. It is a challenging medium, especially in those first few days. … It’s just a matter of teaching them to look out for things that they wouldn’t normally be aware of until they do it for a long time, so it’s like I regard myself as a shortcut to that thought process.”

Oliveri teaches adults as well, but said teaching teenagers is more fun because “they’re not predisposed to how things should be.”

“There’s a little bit more freedom there,” he continued. “And it helps keep me young, I think, because we talk about music and what’s happening in the world right now, and I get an idea of their level of anxiety about the universe. … I don’t really come at it as either a teacher or a parent, I’m just, hopefully, a cool dude to talk to.”

Asked how he feels about his work being referred to as “graffiti,” Oliveri said he shies away from using the term because of its negative connotation.

“That being said, graffiti as we know it started in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, and it’s ubiquitous in so many areas of our lives right now that we don’t even realize it,” he said. “You see it in commercials, in fashion, in movies, in music — it’s everywhere. The stigma, to some extent, I think, has been taken care of, but I do think presenting the work as legitimate, as just not a criminal pursuit, is important.”

As our interview wrapped up, three students arrived for their spray painting session, and Oliveri asked them to pick a color to start the day’s lesson, which focused on building out block lettering.

Oliveri will teach two more sessions this summer, one from July 13-24 and another from August 3-14. More information can be found in the flyer below.

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