The Brewery

The Brewery in Benicia, California was a functioning bar/restaurant when we first saw it in May of 2000. It was built in 1946 to replace the former Brewery, a wooden structure from 1843 that burned to the ground in 1945. We converted the building to studios and living space including indoor and outdoor studios, a model making and drawing space, and the asphalt parking lot has become a lush urban garden. I build most of my large scale work in this most industrial of my studios where I have the bulk of my tools and equipment. There are over 100’ of murals of the surprisingly rich history of Benicia painted on the walls of the former bar with depictions of the slip of the tongue that started the gold rush of 1849, civil war soldiers meeting at the arsenal, and Jack London writing about the waterfront. The location in a small California town just a short distance from the major cities of the Bay Area serves as our urban site.