Benicia Art: A Phoenix rises on First Street in new mural

A Phoenix has risen on Benicia’s First Street in a new mural with the intention of inspiring hope and lifting each other together through change in uncertain times. 

Bay Area artists Kemit Amenophis and Mike D’Amelio began painting the large public art piece in May on the north-facing side of a building owned by Vickie Marchand, who owns NY2CA Gallery inside. NY2CA commissioned the mural through the Global Art Project, an international collective of artists founded by Benicia-based artist Carl Heyward.

Titled “Together We Rise,” the new mural is years in the making and rich with meaning. 

Glowing gold against a swirling, colorful sky, a large bird displays its underfeathers, each of which has been painted in by one of 13 Benicia artists – creating a community composition. A flock of birds emerges from a heart-centered cosmic egg above a mountainous landscape.

“Birds for me have always been powerful. They remind us of so many things, of transformation and hope.” Marchand said.

Memories and meaning

Birds are also meaningful in the memory of her late husband, Terry Twigg. They purchased the building that had housed Romancing the Home and opened the gallery in 2023 after renovations. They’d talked about a mural, but the idea lay dormant after Twigg’s death in 2024.

“When he was passing, birds were at his hospital window. A raven and a hawk stayed right outside the window in a tree,” Marchand said of Twigg. “When he got home, he only lasted six hours and 40 minutes, but there was just this abundance of birds out the window of where I had put the hospital bed.” 

“He always used to say to me, ‘Allow yourself to soar.’” 

Those words are permanently installed on an interior wall of the gallery with a flock of birds in a commissioned piece. 

“Artist Kent Manske had done this bird installation on my window. None of us knew that Twigg was passing, and in the installation, there is one bird that is flying off. Twigg passed shortly after. So, the installation is now in my gallery,” Marchand said. 

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From paper to wall

The idea for the new mural was brought to life when Heyward introduced her to the Global Art Project artists. Amenophis created a rough sketch from the ideas they developed together. D’Amelio said he thought about birds’ multiple feathers. “Maybe it’s hatching from this egg into this bigger bird, and we’re all one. Like we’re all just a feather on this bigger bird,” he said. 

“I like the concept of the design because it has a lot of symbolism and imagery in it, so that’s right up my alley,” Amenophis said.  

Benicia mural the latest in long line of Bay Area pieces

Amenophis knows how to install large-scale art; He’s painted murals since 1984, when he collaborated on a three-story-tall, block-long design by Dewey Crumpler on the Western Addition Cultural Center in San Francisco, now known as the African American Art & Culture Complex. 

His most well-known mural can be found in the outdoor dining area of Cafe International in the Lower Haight. Painted in 1994, it features more than 60 people in traditional attire from all over the world, some carrying instruments. He said it was inspired by an early speech Martin Luther King Jr. gave in San Francisco. 

“In part of the speech, he talks about the music of the bass note and the treble note as a metaphor for different types of people coming together,” Amenophis said. 

D’Amelio creates paintings or mixed-media pieces in series on themes he explores in depth. He currently has a piece at West Portal Gallery in San Francisco from a series called “Breath,” created during the COVID pandemic after his father had a bad car accident and was placed on an incubator to breathe.

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Local artists pitch in, ahead of art festival

For the Benicia mural, D'Amelio and Amenophis created designs after a conversation with Marchand about her vision. One stood out and reminded her of “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh, but she wanted more color. They returned with a second iteration, and immediately she thought, “They nailed it.” 

“I really wanted something vibrant and very colorful and bold, so that when people came down, it literally made them stop in their tracks,” Marchand said. 

Already it’s had the intended effect. Over the last two weeks, people frequently stopped by to look, snap a picture, and chat with the artists as they painted from a scaffolding. 

They drew the design in sidewalk chalk on the painted white wall, then outlined the figures in purple. They brushed in the remaining colors as Benicia artists joined to fill in feathers with their own designs. 

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Betty Lucas was the first local artist to fill in a feather, which she did with a portrait of an owl inspired by one she met in a falconry class. She draws animals with pastels, a passion she discovered after taking a charcoal class with Arts Benicia in her retirement. 

“I’ve never painted in my life,” Lucas said, explaining that she first tried to decline the invitation to contribute but joined in the mural with Marchand’s encouragement. 

“As the community-minded person she is, she kept all these wings blank and invited the rest of the community to come in and put their little pieces up,” she said. “Isn’t that amazing?” 

Other painted wings are by local artists: Vincent B Concepcion, Tymn Urban, Vicki Dennis, Larnie and Bodil Fox, Wendy Buresh, Carol Dalton, Stephanie Gray, Mishayla Ingle, Annette L Batchelor, Charlynn Throckmorton, Mary Williams and Jean Purnell. 

The mural will be complete in time for the Benicia Art Festival on Saturday. 

“I want to see people take a picture in front of it because it speaks to them in some way, and it’s moved them in some way or inspired them,” Marchand said. “Not just in art, but in your own being – to pay that forward, or (ask) ‘what can we do for each other to lift each other up?’” 

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