The Chula Vista Animal Care Facility is getting a makeover with a new mural done by Ground Floor Murals. The mural will be revealed at the Facility on Oct. 1 from 4-9 p.m., along with a live DJ, and food and drink. CVACF Head Director John Skeel said that this is a great thing for the facility, as it is an older building and blends in with the surrounding area, and this mural will help possible adopters find the facility better.
Skeel said a few months ago he found out about the Chula Vista arts grant program and was encouraged to submit for a grant. He met Ground Floor Murals at a city council meeting as they were getting recognized for artwork they had done in Chula Vista, they talked, met, and in the end, received the grant.
Paul Jimenez and Signe Ditona, the couple who make up Ground Floor Murals, are huge animal lovers and advocates who value giving back to the community through their art. The artistic duo has been in the spotlight throughout the county recently, picking up a contract with the Padres to paint baseball murals around the county, and they have also done many works locally in Chula Vista. Jimenez lives in Chula Vista.
Skeel said that Ground Floor Murals did all the work, holding a contest for people who own shelter animals to get photos taken by one of their community partners, The Woof Booth, a local animal portrait photographer, chose the winners, and provided a photograph of what the mural would look like, and the artists went to work.
“I just cannot believe it. It does not just look like the photo, it is the photo,” he said. “It is just absolutely amazing.”
Skeel said the shelter has been in operation for 20 years in this location and can hold up to 300 animals at any given time. He said unfortunately, it is almost always at capacity. The facility is run by the city of Chula Vista, which has been providing services to the community since 1923, said Keel.
“I think that is very important to the city. We have great cultural diversity here. There are many people who have lived here all their lives, and many people who love animals. We are local. We serve the immediate community,” he said. “We also serve the communities of Lemon Grove and National City. Like other shelters, we are predominately housing dogs, cats, but we also have rabbits and other mammals as well. We also get our fair share of livestock.”
Jimenez said this project “was really cool” because it included many locals and San Diegans took part due to Ground Floor Murals’ Instagram contest.
We picked 12 of about 50 submissions and got them all professional photographed by The Woof Booth, another local awesome artist,” he said.
“From there we picked four of those. Those animals on the wall are all local animals, local pets, there is one memorial piece.”
Jimenez said the unveiling will have many dog venders, a food truck, a DJ, and they are going to premiere a video they made for the mural itself.
“We love painting animals. We love advocating for animals. This was a really nice collaboration. It felt right. We are really giving them our all. We went above and beyond the budget just because it is such an awesome project. We just want to show Chula Vista love and show really what we care about the most. And that is the conservation of animals and Chula Vista,” he said.
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Chula Animal Care Facility head director John Skeel. The Star-News regrets the error.
