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Gay and Lesbian Center Mural

Into the Light, mural in the Gay and Lesbian Center

List of names featured in the mural

Into the Light is the trompe l'oeil mural created especially for the ceiling of the Gay and Lesbian Center by Mark Evans and Charley Brown. The design took a year and a half to evolve, and the executions involved a process rarely used in this country in which the canvas was covered with a mix of marble dust and polymers to create a smooth, plaster-like surface, over which aluminum leaf was then applied.

Working in their studio from November 1995 to March 1996 on a semi-circular canvas at a time, the artists used a thick, viscous brown paint employing many techniques involving rags, hands, and thousands of Q-tips to achieve the mural's luminous shades of burnt umber on silver leaf. The two halves of the 22 foot diameter circular canvas were rolled out and glued to the Center's ceiling on March 13, 1996.

The mural depicts an allegorical construction site in which men, women, and children are working together to move from the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge. Photographing friends and colleagues as models, the artists then altered the figures to render them largely unrecognizable. The only figures intended by the artists to be identifiable are the likenesses of James C. Hormel, for whom the center is named, and Asye and Robert Kenmore, whose generosity made the mural possible.

The blocks creating the structure bear the names of prominent historical figures from various countries and time periods who are known to have same-sex relationships. The names were chosen by the artists from lists compiled by the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Task Force of the American Library Association and made available by the San Francisco Public Library staff.