Surfing Madonna

Encinitas, California

Artist Mark Patterson created a colorful 9x15 ft. glass mosaic of the Virgin de Guadalupe surfing, titled it "Save the Ocean," and installed it clandestinely on Good Friday 2011 on a railroad underpass wall in Encinitas, California. Town leaders flew into a tizzy.

Was it graffiti? Illegal? Religious? Ultimately they decided it was all three and forced Patterson to remove it.

But the public loved the artwork, christened it "Surfing Madonna," and demanded its return.

After a year of rejections, Patterson finally found a home: the outside wall of a surf shop named Surfy Surfy, about a mile north of its original location. It stayed there for a time. By 2014, the Surfing Madonna was hanging ten in a new home, affixed to the outer wall of an Italian restaurant directly across the street from the concrete underpass where it first materialized.

The mural still implores pilgrims to "Save the Ocean." There's a small landscaped area with a bench for extended contemplation.