San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Brittni Cute and Alex Julian
Local artist Alex Julian has been making scenes all over San
Diego, the most recent being the Ruby Room’s new makeover, the “Ruby
Palace” mural, which stretches more than 85 feet across the exterior of the Hillcrest bar.
The graffiti-style cartoon maps a virtual fairytale in congruence
with the bar’s name-play on Wizard of Oz’s Emerald Palace (Ruby Palace, Emerald
Palace, get it?).
The scenes intertwine the Disney story with the Ruby Room’s
rugged ambiance, complete with the bar’s staff pictured as characters from the
story.
Owner Brittni Cute, who also doubled as the murals creative-director during its construction, appears as Dorothy with a major bust, while the artist himself is pictured hanging from the door in the shape of a flying monkey. So go ahead, barfly, click your heels and go check it out for yourself.
