Monarch butterfly mural now graces SLO County building. Here’s where to find it
Monarch butterflies have landed on the North Coast, clustering en masse at the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve in Cambria, Sweet Springs Nature Preserve in Los Osos and other areas.
The overwintering insects are the inspiration behind an expansive new mural gracing the east wall of Bob & Jan’s Bottle Shop at the corner of Main and Bridge streets in Cambria.
The mural was created in recent weeks by Christopher “Buddy” Norton and Shelby Lowe, owners of the Canned Pineapple art firm in San Luis Obispo.
It’s the first of three local murals commissioned by Visit SLO Cal, the nonprofit destination marketing and management organization for San Luis Obispo County. Others are planned for locations in San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande.
“As the tourism arm of San Luis Obispo County, Visit SLO CAL is proud to engage the arts within our local communities,” Visit SLO Cal spokesman Eric Parker wrote in an email. “In addition to commissioning the mural in Cambria that honors the annual migration of the monarch butterfly, Visit SLO CAL looks forward to unveiling the Visit SLO CAL Mural Trail in February, along with two additional murals that will tie into existing art projects in our home county.”
Parker said the group will post information about the locations and themes of the other murals on SLOCal.com.
The Visit SLO Cal-sponsored monarch mural isn’t the first to grace the walls of a commercial building in Cambria. A community-created mural is in place at the other end of the downtown area of the art-oriented town.
Mural plays tribune to monarch butterflies
For the design of Cambria’s mural, Norton and Lowe said they “wanted to touch on the feeling of wild flowers and ranches that surround the town and welcome you to Big Sur.”
Their design features twin butterflies in mid-flight fluttering over coastal landscapes at sunrise. At the center is a sun in the midst of large horseshoe patterned with raindrops and flanked by wildflowers.
The butterflies on the wall represent “the continued journey/migration up north,” they said.
The artists took some artistic license with the monarchs, substituting soft pastels for the insects’ iconic black-and-orange color palette.
Monarchs migrate annually from Mexico to various locations along the Central Coast, including overwintering sites in Cambria, Pismo Beach, San Simeon and the Monterey peninsula.
Although the species saw a sharp population decline in recent years, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation employees and volunteers counted more than 129,000 western monarch butterflies in San Luis Obispo County in November, according to preliminary data.
That’s the most counted in San Luis Obispo County in more than 20 years — in 1998 there were about 182,000 counted, according to the Xerces Society’s data.
According to its creators, the mural’s design is loosely themed around the concept of the butterflies’ flight through the county and overwintering in eucalyptus groves and other areas.
The artwork is also designed to encourage pedestrians to stop and take pictures and selfies, something that’s already happening regularly.
The wall is highly visible to people coming into downtown from the south, or who are exploring that portion of the historic East Village neighborhood.
Joseph Ayoub, a partner in Bob & Jan’s, said that the mural “looks beautiful on the building. I like how it represents the area, with a horseshoe, the sea, butterflies and nature.”
It’s “a very smart idea,” he added.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
