For Carlmont artist Cricket Lee, creating art is about giving back to her community.
She fulfilled her art philosophy at the beginning of her senior year when she painted the utility box mural at the intersection of Club Drive and San Carlos Avenue.
According to the City of San Carlos, the mural is designated for local student artists and is repainted every three to five years. For her design, which was selected through a competitive process, Lee took inspiration from her childhood in San Carlos.
“The San Carlos community has always been a huge part of my childhood. I remember always being in the parks and going back home with my friends, going by the sunset spots that we have around the city, and it has just always meant a lot to me growing up. All the bright colors and the very vibrant, playful style that I went for conveyed how grateful I was to spend my childhood in San Carlos,” Lee said.
Growing up, Lee herself was inspired by other artists working on utility box mural projects.
“When I saw another utility box first being painted, my parents were like ‘Oh, Cricket, you should do that when you’re older,'” Lee said.
Lee spent four to five hours a day on weekends painting the box, totaling approximately 30 hours of painting when the piece was finished. Despite the time commitment, it didn’t feel like a burden for Lee.
Over the process of painting the mural, Lee felt more connected to the people living nearby.
“It got posted on Nextdoor and people were talking about it. People driving by offered water, and when they stopped at the stoplight, they would say thank you to me. The most rewarding part was when these two little girls came and visited. They were really interested in what I was doing. One girl’s mom told me the girl wanted to be a muralist when she grows up,” Lee said.
Today, hundreds of Carlmont students view the mural as they pass through the intersection on their daily commute to school.
“The painting is nice and vibrant. It adds a nice pop of color to the surrounding area. To me, it seems to hold a message about pollution,” said sophomore Serena Xue.
Lee’s mural is not her first experience making art for others.
Her interest in visual arts started long before her freshman year. At Carlmont, she began to branch out and find an audience for her work. Her experience includes painting for the Associated Student Body and designing for the Belmont Water Dog Run.
Lee, who is now an Associated Student Body (ASB) vice president, was a commissioner for the Publicity Commission, which paints posters and backdrops for events.
“Coming into high school I had always been passionate about art, but I wanted to find ways to bring art into the community to give back and for it to benefit others, not just myself. That’s what inspired me to join ASB,” Lee said.
To nurture her passion, Lee took graphic design and college-level (AP) studio art at Carlmont. Joseph Espinosa, Lee’s graphic design teacher, noticed her style when she took his class.
“Cricket has a really positive energy around her and creatively that came out in her work quite a bit when she was my student,” Espinosa said. “The design that she came up with for the utility box was the same bright, positive kind of imagery. It’s a direct visual reflection on her and her personality and the impression that she puts out into the world.”
In the coming years, thousands of passerbys will be able to continue to appreciate hours of Lee’s work and creativity.
“I’m proud of her because it’s something that’s going to be out there for a long time for future generations to see. It’s not going away anytime soon. So, it’s a nice tribute to her, the type of work that she does, and the type of person that she is,” Espinosa said.
