Located between Moniker General and The Presley at Liberty Station, the latest addition to Installations at the Station — an outdoor art exhibit featuring a few artists a year — was created by artist James Armenta in partnership with Intuit.
“I wanted to play on the nautical theme,” Armenta explained. “What you see in the center of the mural are called maritime signal flags. Each one of them represents a letter and they have for many years been used by maritime vessels to communicate with one another.”
Armenta went to middle and high school at High Tech High, in Liberty Station and now works as a software engineer at Intuit.
Intuit has a program that gives employees time to volunteer to causes they’re passionate about.
The artist partnered non-profit NTC Foundation, whose main purpose is to renovate historic buildings in Liberty Station from Naval Training Center to arts district as well as offering a ton of programs for artists.
Artists chosen to be featured submitted proposals to use art “to transform the monochromatic, rigid former military base into a creative place that reflects the historic and cultural vibrancy of the San Diego-Baja border region,” according to the NTC Foundation.
“If it wasn’t for this wonderful opportunity, we wouldn’t have this wonderful art installation this year because we’ve tried to refocus our resources to keep our tenants supported in business. So we weren’t able to do our normal two to four outdoor art installations,” explained Lisa Johnson, President and CEO of NTC Foundation.
Liberty Station is also trying other things to keep visitors engaged with local artists during the pandemic. Their monthy First Friday event has gone virtual. Check out local art every first Friday of the month from 4 to 8 p.m. at this link.