Concrete gate pedestal for the Dragon. Dragon: steel armature, carved foam sculpture with a fiberglass reinforced cement skin. Ceramic, glass, and colored mirror glass tesserae.

San Lorenzo River Park, Santa Cruz, CA

Greg Pepping: Project Manager, Tom Ralston: Concrete Gate, George Ow: Art Patron

The Chinatown Memorial took 7 months to complete but was 2 years in planning. We had a “Dream Team” of 4: Greg Pepping, the director of the Coastal Watershed Council (CWC), the CWC acted as the fiscal sponsor for the project and Greg did most of the heavy lifting with permits and acting as liaison with the City of Santa Cruz. Tom Ralston was the concrete contractor who designed and built the arch, eventually, he brought in 4 other folks to help with the Historical aspects of the project, the bronze work, the solar panels for lighting, and a plant expert for the small garden yet to be planted. George Ow, Jr. is an elderly Chinese man who grew up in the last Chinatown in Santa Cruz. The memorial was his idea, he is the main funder, and the memorial is his gift to the City.

As with most things, the project was an idea, and then a drawing before it became a tangible object. I’m not Chinese, and really wanted to get this right so I did a lot of research and consulted with a Chinese expert at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). The dragon went through many iterations in the drawing stage before approval and fabrication began. For instance, I wanted the dragon’s head to face down and greet visitors. I was duly informed that even though Chinese dragons do not have wings, they do indeed fly, but if the dragon is looking down it cannot ascend, it must look up. Several of these kinds of cultural naivete on my part were corrected by the UCSC Chinese expert. It was a daunting and nerve-wracking experience trying to create something so culturally specific and full of mystical meaning outside of my cultural comfort zone.