I start this installment of murals that may not celebrate ethnic pride or struggle at 1277 Gilman, the corner of Gilman and Santa Fe, at the Toot Sweet Bakery.   I start here because we can see, thanks to the photographs of William Newton, what the mural there looked like in 1979 and 1986:

Today:

The mural is the work of John Wehrle of Richmond.  Wehrle also is responsible for the mural celebration of the Oholone under the University Avenue overpass at 4th Street.    I suggest you visit his website.

His is an extraordinary life.  I would like to meet him one day.

I like the sound of Classy Nails, of what it promises.  And I like the mural on the side of Classy Nails at 1650 University, along the Jefferson Street side of the building.

The bottom image is separated from the main mural and is titled “We Only Come Out at Night.”   Perfect!

A few blocks up University is this ”

A few blocks down University, just past Bonar, is the former west campus of Berkeley High School at 1701 University.  The main building has been recently rehabbed as the offices of the Berkeley Unified School District.  Facing University, west of the main building, is this mural:

I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille!   OK – let’s focus in on the camel!

Tom Robbins taught us about the importance of choice, using a pack of Camel cigarettes.

On the side of the pack is the word “CHOICE.”   If you hold it upside down up to a mirror, it reads – CHOICE.  That impressed me to no end.

After I took the photos of this mural, BUSD moved a happily mural-adorned storage container onto the lot, blocking partially the above mural but giving us new images:

Down further on University were two and now is one indoor gardening stores.  I marvel at the interest in indoor gardening!   The survivor, Berkeley Indoor Garden, gives us a modest mural celebrating indoor gardening:

The playground and pool below Martin Luther King School, technically at 1701 Hopkins, both boast murals.  First the playground mural, with its high production values:

And then the pool – a little more naive:

The pool murals remind of the murals that wrap around Berkeley Youth Alternatives, 1255 Allston.

Speaking of plants, let’s drop in at the East Bay Nursery (2332 San Pablo).  The several buildings are covered with mural art:

It is a great nursery and it has a great mural.  A two-fer!  And now some one-shot wonders, where as Rod Stewart taught us, every picture tells a story.

And to close this posting, my absolute favorite from the last several months.  It is inside a doorway on San Pablo.

More than just a little evocative of Kilroy Was Here, no?

My friend gets inspired by mural photographs.  He works on murals of his own.  I previously showed you his Beer at the Lake 1955 mural concept.  Today he was working on a Entertaining 1957 concept:

He is a big fan of the East Bay Nursery mural, and really really “digs” the final one, from the San Pablo doorway.  Overall, what did he think of these more miscellaneous murals?