New Temescal mural captures humanity and resilience, ‘a reminder of having love for people.’

On the side of a nondescript Temescal building, a tableau is coming alive in a vibrant array of blues, oranges and reds.  

An artist on a ladder, spray paint in hand, adds the final touches, catching the eye of a passerby, who yells, “It looks great,” as he drives by. Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith smiles and waves, then returns to her work. 

“Murals are cool because you’re out here connecting with other human beings,” the artist said. “Because you’re outside all day, I’m grounded in the community in a very real way, from people in the streets to neighbors walking by.”

Last week, Wolfe-Goldsmith completed the mural, which highlights the humanity and resilience of the city’s most vulnerable people. Named “The Storm’s Gift,” it adorns the exterior of the Bay Area Community Services building on 40th Street and Shafter Avenue. It’s the latest piece Wolfe-Goldsmith, a Bay Area muralist who is behind some of Oakland’s largest and most iconic pieces of public art, including murals of Black Panther women in West Oakland and dancers on the Oakland Tribune Tower.

The new 18-by-40-foot painting depicts large thunderclouds, a gold key, and Victorian-style housing to represent the strength of the community that Bay Area Community Services serves. A woman in the piece smiles at the viewer, while a man gazes up at the sky.

“If you look at the picture, it will tell you it all without the words,” said Country McCleary, who lives a few blocks away in an encampment near the MacArthur BART station. “You can see the strength and the pain. He is asking for spiritual help for himself and his enemies, and he’s really praying because he has problems.”

Wolfe-Goldsmith’s mural was funded by its host, Bay Area Community Services, a nonprofit which has been working since 1953 to address mental health and housing needs, with services that include interim housing, benefits assistance, and help finding a job. In 2023, the nonprofit says it served 19,422 people across five counties in Northern California, 60% of whom resided in Alameda County. 

‘A broom to a needle’

Nora Daly, the organization’s chief development officer, said the goal of the mural was to highlight the “strengths, power, joy and hope” that people in the unhoused community contribute to Oakland. 

“These people are all of our neighbors,” Daly said. “It’s our job to protect, support and uplift them, just like we hope that our neighbors would do for us if we were in that same situation.”

Wolfe-Goldsmith, who is also the founder of Wolfe Pack Studios, a creative collaborative art space in Oakland, witnessed the challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness as a child in Eugene, Oregon, going to work with her mother at a youth homeless shelter. Those experiences gave her a deep understanding of how society often marginalizes these communities, she said. 

“I’ve always had a soft spot for humanity within struggle, and it plays into the way I portray these characters in the mural,” Wolfe-Goldsmith said. “They are a reminder of the people that we see everyday who deserve respect and dignity regardless of their financial circumstances. I hope this mural is a reminder of having love for people.”

Bay Area Community Services spent two months going over edits of the mural’s design with Wolfe-Goldsmith before it was created.

Two additional Bay Area artists, Kevin Lowry and Kalani Cecaci, assisted Wolfe-Goldsmith to complete the project, which took three weeks to paint. Wolfe-Goldsmith describes her process as going “from a broom to a needle,” requiring both broad preparation and intricate detail.

The team began by ensuring the wall was dust-free and then carefully transferring a digital line drawing, which provided an outline for Wolfe-Goldsmith’s design. Little by little, the team worked around obstacles like uneven terrain and unpredictable weather.

Linda Brauer, 60, a Temescal resident, is grateful for the work that Wolfe-Goldsmith and her team have created.

“A lot of murals incorporate those same colors, but she’s done it in a way that really is softened but impactful, ” said Brauer, who often walked by the work in progress. ” I interpret it as housing is an important bridge to bring us back to the land, to the people that live here, and that have lived here.”

---

Oakland artists go brush to brush, raising money for mural project in Kenya