Memorable Moments: Artist Caron

By Lindsey Leak
(One in a series for Central City Extra!)

“I just had an incredibly memorable moment when I unveiled my mural (March 5). It’s been a huge thing for me. The Tenderloin has been the most responsive and involved community that I’ve ever done a mural in and it’s been a pleasure. It really took the cake,” said Mona Caron, a San Francisco muralist with major works at the Muni tunnel below the Mint and at Duboce between Church and Market.

Caron’s recently completed mural at Golden Gate and Jones streets portrays people of the Tenderloin and the neighborhood landscape. A huge crowd attended its unveiling,
some of them immortalized in the artwork. “It’s really life imitating art imitating life,” said Caron. “Some people dressed exactly the way I had portrayed them in the mural. I had seen someone carrying a painting of Michael Jackson when he had just died and I put him in the mural carrying that painting and he came to the opening carrying it.

“There are so many different communities intermingling in the same place. It’s rich in the human sense. I met so many people who are doing amazing things with that community, like total rock stars,” said Caron. “There’s such a variety of people from different back grounds, and it’s dense. It merits a little more love put into its public spaces. Not a monetary richness but in terms of variety of cultures, and all the knowledge that comes with that. It’s so full. I only managed to scratch the surface.”