Morgan Bricca painted her first mural in Los Gatos in 2018. She’s now completed four.
Most recently, Bricca finished one at the Whole Foods Market coming to town on the corner of Los Gatos Boulevard and Los Gatos Almaden Road. As of a few years ago, the Town has implemented a rule for new businesses to set aside a small amount of money to beautify their structure with art. Bricca, who has been a muralist for 26 years now, believes that art should be treated with respect—like a regular industry, and not just like a charity. And as the town awaits the arrival of the new Whole Foods, you can pass by the façade and see the four murals that have been painted for yourself.
Painting in Los Gatos
After being born and raised in Pacific Palisades, just outside LA, Bricca migrated to the Peninsula 23 years ago to raise her family. “Traditionally, people don’t perceive mural art as a fine art, because it can’t be bought and sold in the same way. But yet, it can completely offer tremendous value, both in the private and public space.” Bricca draws a parallel between lemons / lemonade and the blank walls that exist in towns—sort of like a “missed opportunity.” Bricca got the job at Whole Foods because of an anonymous referral, she says.
“I love painting in Los Gatos,” she said. “It should be an arts community, and it is going that way. So for this Whole Foods (project), it was 1% of the cost of the building—the shell of the building.” Bricca says the 1% rule didn’t exist when she painted her mural on the side of the Azuca location in 2021.
In 2021, Council passed the Public Acts Ordinance, which stipulates that new residential projects of three or more units, new commercial, and new mixed-use developments in Los Gatos incorporate public art into the project—equal to 1% of the construction cost. Developers have the option to instead pay an equal amount directly to the Town’s Public Art Fund.
The developers of Sand Hill Property Company reached out to Bricca directly to be involved in the murals at Whole Foods. Her art at Lululemon, in downtown Los Gatos, was Bricca’s first here, back in 2018 (you can see it behind their register and on the walls above their dressing rooms). She also has a mural of redwoods on the second floor of The Club at Los Gatos (in their yoga room). As to the new 1% art requirement, it has to be done before the building opens (and there’s been plenty of excitement for the new Whole Foods).
Bricca put the finishing touches on the four murals in January. She says it took about a month to complete. Each mural is of a bird, which resembles the changes of seasons. “My design is driven by who it’s for, where it’s going and what it’s supposed to communicate,” she said. The featured birds are: house finch for spring, American goldfinch for summer, scrub jay for fall and eastern spotted towhee for the winter.
Art is an ecosystem
The art requirement for new projects opens many opportunities to provide net benefits to the public. As an artist, Bricca says she thinks corporations incorporating not just her work, but other mural artists’ as well, is a cause worth advocating for. “I always like to think of art’s ecosystem,” she said. “It means that individuals can apply their creativity at a lot of different levels.” These dollars from corporations can allow for larger installations that would otherwise be too expensive for an individual, or a city, to fund. This is why Bricca says she likes the idea of companies getting involved, since it’s a way they can help their communities thrive.
The 49ers donated a STEM lab to Santa Clara’s Cabrillo Middle School, where Bricca painted a mural in 2017. The players came out to paint with the kids. Another one of Bricca’s artworks was for a space for Google in San Francisco. She says she is particularly excited about the work that she did for a community housing project. “The coolest thing about my work right now, is most of my projects are public-facing, and public good projects,” she said. “Right now I’m painting apartment buildings for low-income, transitional housing and neurodivergent housing. I just finished one in Palo Alto, and I have one in Morgan Hill coming up.” Bricca highlights the importance of being part of painting her murals on new buildings that provide for people in need. There are two neurodivergent buildings that are meant to feel inclusive. Bricca says that her murals contribute to that theme, by bringing in color for all demographics. She asks, “How can you create art that puts everyone on the right foot as they walk down the street?”
Art isn’t charity
Bricca says that female mural artists are underestimated. She says she’s bid on projects where the past nine mural artists chosen were men. “I would love to see women as 50% of contributors in public art, at least,” she said. “I was bidding on the 10th, and they chose a man.” The thing that Bricca feels is great about an arts ecosystem, is that it’s great to have opportunities for artists to participate in different ways. Even though mural festivals can be a great addition to an artist’s portfolio, it isn’t always enough to make a living. So, commissions from cities, private entities and commercial clients have the potential to support better quality art over the long term.
In terms of working with the Town’s arts counselor, Bricca says that they were great to work with. Bricca says, more than ever, there’s a vitality to handmade work, especially in contrast to AI art, such as “when you see the brush strokes, when you see the paint texture, the visceral nature of the process—as opposed to a print out.” She continues, stating, “When I paint murals, I don’t even use an airbrush. I use brushes as big as the mural needs.”
Bricca was working in IT. But she says she realized she was a bit of a “busybody” and decided to leave her desk job to pursue her passion of being a mural artist. She began with just working on her house, at first. Because she didn’t have a window in a portion of her home, she opted to paint a mural resembling one. Positive reaction led to her first commissions, via word-of-mouth, to ads in the local paper and—eventually—steady work painting murals. “Anybody paying me to paint and not having to be at a desk, was a win,” she recalled.
Looking back, Bricca says that her goal has always been to add value to people’s lives. She remembers the first time she painted a mural for a little girl. The mother began crying, realizing that she was connecting with people. “At the ground floor, my art-making was a dance with another person,” she said. “I still do that. I’m still completely attuned to this collaborative aspect, asking, What kind of community am I in?” Now, with the Whole Foods birds, residents of Los Gatos will be able to reflect on their relationship to the natural world every time they go to buy groceries there.
