A picture may be worth a thousand words; however, if you take a thousand words, how many pictures can you paint?  Artist MB Hanrahan and collaborator Moses Mora found that they could take the words of the Tortilla Flats neighborhood and paint many, many pictures.

The original set of mural panels, installed in 1995, commemorated families and businesses located in Westside Ventura in an area bounded by the Ventura River and reaching over towards Ventura Avenue.  The mural was displayed along Figueroa Street, across from the Fairgrounds, and illustrated stories of families that helped lay the foundation of our present community and portrayed scenes of Ventura that are now only memories.   

MB said, “I saw the wall every day as I ran by it.  Moses and I, we see eye to eye on stuff.  I draw and paint, he’s the visionary.  I know a good idea when I hear it.  With this one, Moses was the one who knew the old families.  He was the one who got us in the door.  I’m the muralist, he’s the activist.

“We were fortunate to be asked to recreate it.  It’s interesting to work on something that we did before.  The very first time I drew it out on the wall, I personally only painted three to four myself.  What it said and stood for was more important than being considered an artistic triumph.  I would do a little bit by myself.  Part of the charm of the project is the fact that it was a group effort.  It was a huge thing.  The lettering was done by Kaliman.  Everyone stopped by and contributed.  It’s all creativity.  The initial idea had a lot of expression.  After that, it’s all execution, finding the solution to make it happen.  It’s like an archeological dig, and then you put it out there.

“This time it’s by me.  I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do this to the best of my ability.  There will be a stylistic approach to the painting.  The new one will have the same content, and we’ve introduced a new concept of photographs reproduced on ceramic tiles to capture a glimpse into the time and the people of the neighborhood.”


The mural will be placed on the pillars of the underpass which, ironically, cut right through the old Tortilla Flats neighborhood.  The installation will be coordinated with CalTrans.  The silhouette textured metal base the panels will be attached to, “It’s almost like a net where these pictures got caught in time,” says MB.  “It’s a giant scrapbook on display about a neighborhood.  There are a lot of people still alive from this project, so it’s totally cool to be involved in this.”

MB grew up in Los Angeles with parents and friends who encouraged her to participate in artistic endeavors, telling her “If you want to do it, train for it and be good at it.”  Her father worked in the movie industry and would often bring her to work with him to see sets being constructed.  She attended college in Santa Cruz, where she took what she called a “detour” into a stint with sculpture.  “I enjoyed the 3-dimensional action of it, but I decided that working in a foundry was not for me.” 

She then got her Masters in Arts from Humboldt State and later worked as a display artist in Los Angeles.  She created display windows and, instead of using solid color backgrounds as was the norm, she integrated painted scenes.   She started painting murals in the late ‘80s.   She admits, “My first murals were on my mom’s walls.”   She also designed sets for children’s shows on Fox TV.  On the weekends, she started coming to visit Ventura.

“I got a studio in Art City.  It wasn’t like I had an agenda.  One thing just led to another.  I moved here in ’89, and at that point I think I painted one of the first murals in Ventura.  The Wild Planet store on Main Street was screaming chartreuse at the time, and we painted it with a mural.  We had to get the okay through the City’s Sign Department.

“I had always looked at billboards.  I didn’t think they were better, but they were just bigger and more people saw them.  I like my art to really involve the people looking at it.  You can engage them in art without banging them over the head.  Give them a positive message.” 

One of her positive message murals is the “It’s not Cool to Target Kids” mural painted, interestingly, on the side of a local liquor store.  It was painted in 1994 by MB, local youths, and community members.  She was approached by Berta Payan, then Director of Westpark, to work on the mural.  “It was a chance to beautify the neighborhood.  I like doing stuff where it’s not all about you.  Ultimately it’s not about me.  Instead of making as much money as I can, I choose to do art that is a means to an end.”  

The mural was paid for by tobacco tax money, and was nationally recognized in 1996 as one of 50 murals in a contest for anti-drug and alcohol projects created by kids.   When it was painted over, without her permission, a lawsuit followed wherein MB was awarded a judgment which included compensation to repaint the mural.  The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, an amendment to the Copyright Act which gives artists protection from damage or destruction of their works, protected the artwork.



Westside students at Sheridan Way School walk by her “Todos Colores” mural every day.  It started with Principal Trudy Arriaga asking MB to work with the teachers’ design which celebrated the ethnic diversity of their school.  It resulted in a colorful combination of books, animals, flowers, and kids.  Westpark Recreation Center also is the recipient of MB’s artistry, with another mural that overlooks its fields and playground. 






Saticoy Elementary School held a dedication ceremony in May 2007 in celebration of its second mural by MB.  Painted with the words "I sari wa," Chumash that translates into "It will continue indefinitely," there are images of the sun and moon, dolphins, flowers, and other symbolic figures.

In her dedication speech MB said, "I want to thank my parents for recognizing and acknowledging I was going to be an artist.  They never told me I should consider following a more stable, or secure career path.  They supported my creativity, took my dreams seriously, and made sure that I was able to take art lessons.  My parents passed on to me the story telling, music-making magical reality of the Irish, my cultural heritage.  It instilled in me an appreciation of other immigrant cultures, and how they enrich the American experience. 

"My dad gave me some advice, when I was a young person, and I want to share that with you all today.  He told me never to change my style, my self expression-regardless of fashion, or what was currently hip…In other words, I was not to jump on the bandwagon because it would make my work more acceptable or profitable. He told me that in my lifetime, the day would come when what I was doing would be recognized, and at that time, I would be the best at it, because I hadn't compromised my vision.  I believe this, and share this with young people when I can.  I know the pressure to fit in, to do whatever everybody else is doing… but stay strong, and be yourself."

MB has taught at Ventura College since 1995, sharing her expertise with students in Color and Design, Art Appreciation, and mural classes.  Her students’ finished projects are shown on the pillars in campus walkways, the sides of Arts class buildings, and are showcased in the college bookstore.  “The most that I bring to teaching is that I’m a working artist.  I should be teaching a class that I’m really good at that no one else does, so I teach mural painting.”