How a tongue-in-cheek piece of art is creating change.

David Schmalz here, thinking about the power of art, and how creativity can inspire change. Specifically, subversive creativity. 

One of my favorite living artists is Banksy, an anonymous Brit—I guess?—whose work always appears at the right time, and right place. He’s subversive, and a genius. 

So is local artist Hanif Panni, who’s a close friend, which is why I typically don’t write about him. Today, I’m making an exception. 

In July of last year, the City of Seaside sent a letter to Etienne Constable, a resident, giving him notice that the boat parked in the side lot of his house was in violation of city code. It had been there for years without complaints, but since the city ramped up its code enforcement over the past few years, it suddenly became a problem for him. 

So Constable turned it into an opportunity—he built a 6-foot fence to comply, and came up with the idea to paint over the newly built fence in front of his boat that would look exactly like the boat and surrounding plants. 

He lobbied the idea to Panni, his next-door neighbor, and they ran with it. 

Recalling those discussions, Panni says Constable told him something to the effect of, “You know what would be awesome, is if you could paint a boat on the fence.” Panni thought it was a hilarious idea, and made magic of it. 

And Panni’s execution was flawless—it’s truly a beautiful work of art.

Constable has owned the home for 29 years and got the Arima C-Ranger 19 for fishing in 2020. So far as he knows, no neighbors have complained. But, in many ways, he’s happy about the outcome. "This is just cool, it just is really fun,” he says. His only complaint now is that the painting isn’t visible from his house, just from the street; he walks down to the foot of the driveway to admire it. "I just wish I had a place I could sit and see it. If you sit here…" he says.

The work of art is making a splash nationally—Panni says he took a call today from the Washington Post. The artwork has become an internet sensation. 

Constable feels like it’s wild he can’t just have this boat on his property, but instead of bucking the system through the system, he took a different approach. 

“I have a sense of humor,” Constable says. 

Clearly. 

The collaboration between Constable and Panni is a thing of beauty, the greatest piece of art I’ve seen in my decade of living in Monterey County, because not only was it perfectly rendered, it sends a message. 

Nick Borges, the Seaside Police chief who’s also the acting city manager as City Hall is going through a period of turmoil, also reached out to Constable earlier today, mainly to give appreciation, and also, to express that the city is going through the process now of updating its codes.

Borges doesn’t know exactly when the ordinance creating that code passed, but he believes it’s been on the books for decades. That said, he adds there’s been pushback on some of the enforcement of yearslong rules that haven’t historically been enforced, and that, “Some codes are quite frankly outdated.”

There’s no doubt about that, but they did inspire an epic piece of art.

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