RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - On Saturday, July 1^st the City of Rancho Cordova celebrated its 20^th year of cityhood. In honor of this historic milestone, the City commissioned performance artist and speed painter David Garibaldi to create three large paintings. Garibaldi, who grew up in the Sacramento area was asked to focus on the history, progress and cultural diversity of the city.

On a very warm evening where earlier in the day temperatures soared to 109 degrees, Garibaldi brought his passion and energy to the amphitheatre at Village Green Park. After being introduced by Rancho Cordova Mayor Linda Budge, Garibaldi took the stage in front of a large crowd of enthusiasts and started to wield his paint-filled brushes to the music of various popular musicians.

With each slash, stroke and dab of his brushes, and mixed with several choreographed moves facing the audience, images that he himself only knew started to come to life. Garibaldi’s familiarity of the Sacramento region helped him with his selections. Each painting took approximately 15 to 20 minutes from start to completion. The audience was completely mesmerized and engaged as they could only guess what the subject matter was going to end up as.

The first painting that Garibaldi created was an image of the Mills Station Arts & Cultural Center better known as “The MACC”. The MACC, in its 6^th year of operation, has been the home to many local artist showcases, live musical performances, traveling exhibits focusing on history, culture, and social justice, as well as artist workshops, movies and theatrical plays performed by local theatre groups. Cheryl Gleason, Art Director and Curator of The MACC said, “For a city with a focus on the arts, it was important to represent the arts in our 20 years of cityhood with David Garibaldi. The heat didn’t phase him, and the crowd loved the performance”.

The second painting featured four very unique individuals dressed in different cultural attire. These four people, two women and two men represent the vast cultural diversity of the city.  A blue-like halo inspired by the City’s infinity logo surrounds them.

In the third and last painting, Garibaldi filled the canvas with several familiar images. In the center was City Hall with a large red “20 Years” above it. The “0” in the number 20 was a hot air balloon that was featured in the “20 Years - A Million Dreams” campaign. To the left was a rocket taking off depicting Rancho Cordova’s connection to Areojet and the Space Age. On the right was a landscape featuring the beautiful American River with its winding levees and the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. 

Shelly Blanchard, Executive Director of the Cordova Community Council said, “We wanted to celebrate our arts community with someone who knows us. David captured our history at Mills Station, our present at City Hall and our future as depicted by our richly diverse community. It was beautiful.”

The commission included all of Garibaldi’s supplies, his performance and ownership of one of the three paintings with the option to purchase the other two if desired. The City decided to purchase all three paintings and will showcase them in various locations throughout the city. After the performance was over, I noticed that Garibaldi’s shoes were covered in paint drops resembling a Jackson Pollock painting. The artist said he would throw in the pair of shoes, signed, as part of the commission. The entire performance was a magical experience!