Delivering Art: Sunset Beach Post Office Doubles as Outdoor Gallery


April 25, 2012 



http://www.facebook.com/uspsspacerTwitter @USPS

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — The little stucco bungalow that serves as the Sunset Beach Post Office may not be architecturally impressive, but it is beloved by the citizens of this small neighborhood in Huntington Beach. And considering the community’s artistic reputation, it just wouldn’t seem right if their Post Office looked... well... ordinary. And it doesn’t, thanks to Sunset Beach Postmaster Corinne Brubaker.

Back in 2010, Brubaker set up a booth at the annual Sunset Beach Art Festival where she introduced a contest to find a mural design to grace the newly-painted, canary-yellow walls of her facility. Now, two years and several quarts of acrylic paint later, Brubaker’s idea and the talents of three local artists is on permanent display — not just for nearby residents and customers, but for the thousands of people who drive past the Sunset Beach Post Office on busy Pacific Coast Highway.

The building’s southwest wall depicts a sandy path leading to a lifeguard tower overlooking an indigo Pacific Ocean, where Catalina Island reclines on the horizon. Fittingly, given the name of the community, the sky is awash in a tangerine and yellow sunset. This is the work of mural contest winner Katy Brack, who along with her daughter, her art teacher and other volunteers, painted the side of the building, including a door and window.

The scene has special meaning for Brack, a resident of Huntington Beach.  It was her first view of the Pacific Ocean when she visited ten years ago on a trip from her native Great Britain. Although Brubaker selected Brack as the mural contest winner, she felt strongly that some of the other entries also deserved a place in the sun.  Fortunately, the Sunset Beach Post Office has three exterior walls that are visible to the public.

So the northwest wall sports another mural, this one featuring a flock of pelicans skimming above a white-capped sea and silhouetted against a fiery sunset.  General contractor and budding artist Mel Rice completed the work with assistance from his grandson.  Rice said that he designed his mural to be broad, bright and uncluttered so that people can take it in at a glance as they drive by.

The third work of outdoor art was created by artist and designer Enzo Palagyi, who re-imagined a sign on the front of the building as an oversized Sunset Beach postmark stamped on a twilight sky.  Since the sign is removable, Palagyi had the luxury of completing it in oils in his own studio.

Brubaker is ecstatic with the results. All of the work took about six months to complete, during which time Brubaker has been on assignment in Lomita. Michael Heinrich, who is filling in for her, carried on the project and said the community has overwhelmingly embraced the new look.  “Every day since the work began,” he observed, “customers have commented and praised the paintings.”

Since all of the art work was donated, Brubaker plans to recognize the three artists for their contribution to the community at an upcoming meeting of the Huntington Beach Art League.  “Each one of these artists has created something special that we will be enjoyed for years to come,” declared Brubaker.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at http://about.usps.com/news/welcome.htm.

For reporters interested in speaking with a regional Postal Service public relations professional, please go to http://about.usps.com/news/media-contacts/usps-local-media-contacts.pdf.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on Twitter @USPS and at Facebook.com/usps

Postal News
 

California Media Contacts