Goleta is working with Carpeteria Carpet One and a local artist to create an “Entry to Old Town” mural on the wall of the Hollister Avenue business.
Goleta’s Design Review board discussed the project at its Tuesday meeting.
“I think it’s a really exciting time for Old Town,” Goleta city councilman James Kyriaco told the News-Press. “I think it’s just one more example of the community taking steps to really show love and affection for our shared community. This is just another exciting development between this and the splash pad and the new roundabouts in Old Town. There’s just a lot of really good things happening right now.”
The art mural is part of an Old Town Pride of Place Grant given to the business in 2025. The flooring business has selected Jessica Altstatt, a marine biologist and community science leader, to create the mural.
Altstatt is an Old Town resident and a featured chalk artist at the Mission’s I Madonarri festival. She also has had experience leading the Old Town Audubon Mural Project in 2021, bridging gaps between business owners and city representatives.
The design features three 12 foot tall, 16 foot t wide panels of a crashing ocean wave with some symbols of the city’s environmental signatures: the left panel features monarch butterflies on the foreground, jumping dolphins in the middle panel and representations of Goleta’s agricultural scene, shown with lemons and avocados, on the rightmost panel.
The top of the mural will feature a bright skyline and colorful flowers along the bottom, among them California poppies, seaside daisies and the native and endangered Gaviota tarplant.
“The way I work, basically, is I think about design themes and elements that represent how Goleta is important to me,” said Altstatt during the review. “As a marine biologist and a surfer and a beachgoer, I am really interested in Goleta’s ocean and the proximity to the ocean, and how that affects all of our lives.”
The design will be placed six feet above the sidewalk and layered with an anti-graffiti coating to prevent any vandalism. Altstatt said the design is meant to be viewed on Hollister, rather than the sidewalk below where it will be placed.
This mural project is part of a city effort to reshape Goleta using Old Town Pride of Place (POP) Grants.This project is one of two funded mural POP Grants, the other mural is located on the side of the Santa Barbara Aquatics building on Hollister Avenue
Members of the review board complimented the design’s attention to Goleta symbols. Some of the members suggested that the design should not have any text, as well as a backdrop of the Santa Ynez Mountains.
“Thank you for thinking so deeply about Goleta,” said board member Dennis Whelan. “I myself have wondered if there wasn’t a way to do something on the 217 underpasses. I think this picks up on that spirit, so you and your dog are to be congratulated for thinking so deeply about this,” said Whelan, referencing Alstatt’s walks with her dog that inspired her design.
