At the corner of 24th Street and Potrero Avenue is a Walgreens distinct from any other of the chain’s drugstores in San Francisco. The difference? A bright multi-colored 15-foot-tall mural that wraps around the exterior of the building. It features bright blue houses with dark shadows, thin trees in soft autumn colors and clear bright colorful skies — a Neil G. Ballard original.
Ballard began his project, titled “Evening Trees,” on Sept. 3. He was inspired by the tall, skinny eucalyptus trees on the median strip of Potrero Avenue and the houses of the Mission District.
“I want people to get a sense of joy and happiness from the colors on the wall,” Ballard said, referring to the juxtaposition of bright and dark colors. “I want it to invoke a certain kind of emotion beyond that, a mix of optimism and happiness with a touch of melancholy. The right balance of wistfulness and hopefulness.”
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“Evening Trees,” a mural by Neil G. Ballard. Photo by Emmanuel Fonseca. -
Neil G. Ballard poses for a picture while painting his “Evening Trees” mural. Courtesy photo from Neil G. Ballard. -
Neil G. Ballard working on his “Evening Trees” mural on Sept. 23, 2024. Photo by Emmanuel Fonseca. -
Neil G. Ballrad and Nathaniel J. Bice pose for a picture in front of Neil’s “Evening Trees” mural. Photo by Emmanuel Fonseca.
Ballard is one of Mission Local’s illustrators and has been busy capturing the likenesses of mayoral and supervisorial candidates. The 34 year-old, who was born in Santa Cruz and grew up in Oregon and Ireland, has lived in San Francisco for 15 years and has been painting murals on its buildings for four years.
And he’s kept busy: His recent work, “Ocean Avenue Landmarks,” located at a Walgreens on Ocean and Faxon Avenues and completed in March, features likenesses of several notable sites in the Ingleside neighborhood. The mural follows a similar theme to his “Evening Trees” design with bright bold colors to depict the Ingleside cityscape. Various architectural landmarks are featured such as the historic former El Rey Theatre, the Ingleside Sundial, St. Emydius Catholic Church, Beep’s Burgers and more.
The choice of warmer, brighter colors allow for the landmarks in the mural to emerge from behind the darker color wave in the background. Ballard has been an active resident of the Ingleside area since 2013, and worked on two murals in the neighborhood.
His first big mural on a commercial building was in 2021 and sits across the street from his “Ocean Avenue Landmarks” mural at an auto shop, Faxon Garage. The finished product: A large detailed landscape of dark green trees and bright blue mountains that he calls, “The Natural World.” It covers the entirety of the garage doors.
“I wanted to do something different from what the business was day to day.” Ballard said. “The message I wanted to communicate with this mural is a willingness to consider the things that are maybe not so obvious. Something to remind us of the nature we are a part of. It’s nice to contrast something urban and everyday with nature.”
In August, Ballard renovated another neighborhood landmark giving a fresh coat of paint to the iconic Beep’s Burgers neon sign on Ocean Avenue. “The artistic challenge was to keep the design the same and replicate it.” Ballard said. “It has always been a dream of mine to repaint the sign.”
In addition to fully doing the project himself he also managed it. He reached out to a welder who fixed the rust on the sign and replaced it with a new piece of metal. Ballard also coordinated with a neon specialist who repaired the old neon tubing.
Ballard’s fondness for neighborhood structures goes back years. He has always had a keen interest in housing, architecture, and trees, he said. These are all elements that appear in a lot of his work. He credits many of his artistic choices to the places in which he grew up.
“Comparing Santa Cruz and Northern California to Oregon, it’s a totally different color palette. That really affected me early on and sort of stuck with me throughout life,” Ballard said. “In California the green of trees has a much more yellow cast to it and in Oregon there’s more of a blue to the green of trees. Painting these evokes those memories for me on a more personal level.”
Ballard started his freelance art career in 2020, but has been drawing since his early 20s. Before 2020 he worked for the Ocean Avenue Association for several years, a nonprofit located in Ingleside that focuses on cleaning, maintenance, and streetscape improvements.
Early on, Ballard published cover and advertisement illustrations in The Ingleside Light. A regular series of comics called “Illustrated Ingleside,” ran from 2015-2019 and featured stories looking at the history of housing in Ingleside and current housing issues.
Fans of the comics told Ballard that they would clip and put it on their fridge. I was “very pleased to hear that,” he said.
He also produced a comic strip for the Ocean Ale House that was sent out in the businesses’ newsletter.
Nearing the completion of his most recent project on Potrero and 24th in the Mission Ballard’s mural was vandalized with white graffiti markings.
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Graffiti marks on Ballard’s “Evening Trees” mural just days before its completion on Sept. 26, 2024. Courtesy photo from Neil G. Ballard. -
Graffiti marks on Ballard’s “Evening Trees” mural just days before its completion on Sept. 26, 2024. Courtesy photo from Neil G. Ballard. -
Neil G. Ballard’s “Evening Trees” mural retouched after being vandalized on Sept. 26, 2024. Courtesy photo from Neil G. Ballard.
It was a downer for the artist to see this happen so soon; he was, literally, getting ready to sign his name to the completed project. But murals being defaced is hardly uncommon, and he was prepared. Ballard cleaned the graffiti within a couple of hours. He has since applied an anti-graffiti coating on the mural to prevent further harm.
His next project will be later this month. He can’t reveal too much about it but said, “I am excited for it, it’s going to be a fun one.”
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