ENCINITAS — A small and beloved grocery store in Leucadia is now home to a new mural demonstrating how everyone can enjoy the ocean.
The large mural takes over a portion of the Just Peachy Market’s wall facing Coast Highway 101, featuring various people partaking in water-related activities — boogie-boarding, surfing, swimming – painted with bold blues, reds, yellows, oranges and pinks.
Artist DJ Javier enjoys regularly working with bold colors but modeled this particular piece after the signature colors of Un Mar de Colores, an Encinitas-based nonprofit organization centered around increasing coastal access for underserved youth through surfing and environmental education.
The nonprofit worked with Javier and the Ambrios family, who own the market, to make the mural happen through a grant awarded by the California Coastal Conservancy.
“The mural pays homage to Latinx and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) families in our coastal community and aims to inspire the next generation of ocean stewards,” said Mario Ordoñez-Calderón, executive director of Un Mar de Colores.
Javier frequently creates artwork for the nonprofit organization, whose mission hits close to home for the Santa Barbara-based artist.
“I’m so supportive of what Mario does because I’m a person of color who’s a surfer as well,” Javier said.
Though an avid surfer as an adult, Javier didn’t learn to swim until he was 17. A year later, he learned how to surf and has been catching waves ever since.
“Growing up, no one who looked like me was surfing or swimming, so I thought why even bother,” said Javier, who is Filipino American. The work Mario is doing — tearing down those barriers and supporting kids who live close to the beach but don’t go or know anything about it — is huge, which is why I’m so passionate about it because it’s building up the younger version of myself.”
