The Surfing Madonna has a new home!

The internationally famous Surfing Madonna has found a new home. Her message to “Save the Ocean” still resonates in Encinitas, surfiing haven of San Diego County, but instead of being located illegally under a railroad bridge, she now resides in the courtyard between Cafe Ipe and Surfy Surfy Surf Shop at 974 North Coast Highway 101 in the Leucadia area of Encinitas.

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The Surfing Madonna is a 10′x10′ mosaic created by Leucadia resident Mark Patterson. He spent a year creating it, even traveling to Italy to study mosaics and large-mosaic construction. Once it was finished, he and a couple of friends dressed as city workers, with van and construction cones, and installed the mural in the stealth of broad daylight on Easter Weekend 2011 under the railroad bridge at Encinitas Boulevard and North Coast Highway 101, just a couple of blocks south of her new permanent home.

(Real) city workers and all sorts of consultants could not figure out how to remove the illegally installed mural from public property. It took almost two months for the artist to come forward, and he only did so after it was announced that the mosaic mural would be removed but would also probably suffer irreparable damage, perhaps even total destruction. Patterson divulged the process for removing the mural and took possession of it.

Since then there has been an ongoing fight between the adoring public and the City, County, Coastal Commission, and even the State on whether or not the Surfing Madonna, deemed by all governments to be a religious mural, could be displayed on public property. Overwhelming verdict was no, with which I agree, notwithstanding the fact that I think it is a beautiful mural with a beautiful message.

The problems as I see them are that

1. just like crosses are religious symbols, so, too, is a Madonna, and we all known (or should know) about the separation of church and state that keeps America great.
2. it did not go through the approval process, and if you make one exception, where do the exceptions end? What if someone made an absolutely gorgeous mosaic mural of Adolf Hitler or the Ku Klux Klan and installed it on public property? Always take a worst case scenario to determine what needs to be done because if you make the exception, some nutjob will find the worst case scenario, implement it, and just cause agony and grief for everyone, including, then, millions of dollars in various lawsuits.

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Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

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I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!