Tile mosaic at Santa Rosa’s Highway 101 underpass finally complete

A dragon has awakened from a long slumber.

Artists just completed the second dragon on the tile mosaic that adorns the Highway 101 underpass along the Prince Memorial Greenway in Santa Rosa after it sat unfinished for two years.

Mario Uribe and his team of apprentices at the art education nonprofit Artstart first painted the dragon mural at the behest of the city in 2010.

After it kept getting covered with gang-related tagging, Uribe replaced the first dragon with hand-painted tiles - easier to remove graffiti - and started on the second when a vandal went after the mosaic with a hammer.

The eyes of the first dragon, were gouged repeatedly. With the city unable to continue to pay for repairs, Uribe said the project came to a stop.

“I wasn’t going to give until it was done,” Uribe said.

He continued to push for the mural until the city was able to dedicate more money for the dragons, which symbolize strength in Asia. He said their meaning was fitting given the mural’s history.

“The city persevered,” he said as he admired the 1,500-square-foot mural on Friday. “The city didn’t give up on the project.”

Uribe wasn’t the only one elated over its completion.

“It’s amazing. I didn’t think it was going to get done,” said Angelina Duckett, the lead artist on the project. “It kept getting destroyed.”

“It brings me a great sense of pride and accomplishment,” added Duckett, who first helped repair the mural about a year ago.

Duckett, 24, of Santa Rosa, has spent the summer working on the mural four to five days a week.

“It means the world to me to bring beauty to the community and transform places that don’t look so great,” added Duckett, a licensed mosaic artist who worked on other artworks in the city, including the mosaic fish statue at the entrance of the trail.

Bicyclists and pedestrians on the trail slowed down Friday morning to admire the mural and thank her for the work as she and her mother, Jodi Duckett, mounted the final tiles on the wall.

“It’s beautiful. I hope no one messes with it,” said Sally Domenighini, a Willows resident who was in town visiting for a few days, along with her husband, James.

The Ducketts said they, too, are keeping their fingers crossed.

“It brings a sense of pride and ownership to these areas,” Angelina Duckett said, adding that numerous homeless people have vowed to watch over the mural and protect it from vandals.

The mosaic cost the city about $25,000, including the previous repairs to the tiles, said Tara Thompson. Santa Rosa’s arts coordinator. She said they suspected it was the same person who damaged the tile repeatedly two years ago.

“It was such a targeted vandalism,” she said.

They considered installing a surveillance camera but were discouraged after they were told it would be ineffective because the underpass was too dark, Uribe said. That’s when a psychologist emailed Uribe, suggesting he remove the heads off the dragon.

Uribe also had his name removed from the mural after someone previously had scratched it out, initially leading him to believe that the vandal had a grudge against him.

The changes seemed to work. The vandalism stopped before they resumed work on the second dragon, Uribe said.

Both dragons are headless. One seems to disappear into the ground, the other behind the cobblestone wall. Uribe also renamed the mural from “Return of the Dragon” to “Exit the Dragon.”

“We’re hoping that’s it,” Uribe said. “I don’t want it to be damaged again.”

You can reach Staff Writer?Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.