Twin Walls Mural Company

Elaine Chu and Marina Perez- Wong are the duo behind the mural arts collaboration Twin Walls Mural Company (TWMC). They believe in the power of visual narratives to capture and reflect a community's history, struggles, dreams, and intentions.

Both San Francisco natives, Elaine and Marina met at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in 1997, grew into community muralists with Precita Eyes under the mentorship of Susan Kelk Cervantes (their beloved “art mom”) and since forming TWMC in 2013 have created over 80 murals across California and New York City.

This month, we interview Brian about the evolution of his practice - from sharp social critique to more personal explorations of identity and belonging.

How did the two of you meet and begin working together? 

E: We’ve known each other since High School. We both went to the San Francisco School of the Arts and have worked together as Twin Walls for over 13 years. Honestly we have been working together collaboratively for close to 20 years now so we know one another very well. Our murals and themes have become more melded and we’ve become more in sync even though our styles are distinctly different.

M: In high school we were in a lot of the same classes and extracurriculars but we were friends outside of that too. Elaine had moved around for a while after high school and I stayed in the Bay mostly but when we were both finally home, we found ourselves working at Precita Eyes Muralists. Our mentor, the founder/ director of Precita Eyes, Susan Cervantes, had put us on a project and we realized then how much fun it was to work together and how seamlessly everything seemed to flow between us artistically and also as individuals outside of our craft.

For people new to your work, how would you describe what you paint, and the intention behind it? 

E: Our work reflects growing up in the Bay Area, and the communities we paint in. We also celebrate the women and individuals that inspire us, while finding ways to depict connection, preserving history and stories. We are motivated by the healing of current and generational trauma, community, history, local and global politics, education, and the transformation of the viewer and themselves through visual language and symbolism. Art is transformative and has the power to create and change and uplift.

M:  Yep, everything Elaine said. I think often when of a viewer is looking at our work they might only see the surface of what we have painted. Because we tend to layer in content, color and symbolism, seeing a piece in its entirety requires sitting with it and catching our “Easter eggs.” 

What does the collaborative process look like on a mural like Mamba Mentality at Willie “Woo Woo” playground? Do you divide up responsibilities, sketch together, how does it work? 

 E: One of us starts a design and the other continues and adds to it.

M: Then we just go back and forth. We work like twins. We have a very balanced dynamic which speaks to how we grew up in the Bay.

E: We listen to one another, bounce ideas among one another. It just flows. There’s no ego involved.

M: It’s always collaborative. Whatever is good for the wall is good for us. Ultimately it’s about the wall being finessed and good for the community. On an average day E starts us off and then I wrap us up. We both work at our own paces, but ultimately we’re overlapping until the end of it.

E: We just always make sure we get the job done in some way or another despite challenges and time constraints. We like to say I’m the starting pitcher and you’re the closing pitcher. 

M: Yeah. And even though our styles are different they work together seamlessly because we overlap at different points and learn and are inspired by each other. We’ll be on opposite sides of the wall in our heads saying “What would Twinsie do?”

What’s your dream location to paint a mural and what would it be and what would you paint? 

E: That's a hard one, we have many dream projects! We have scoped out different walls in SF Chinatown and Oakland Chinatown all varying sizes and some large scale. We have always had in mind to paint a mural of Anna May Wong, she deserves a mural dedicated to her amazing story and legacy. We pretty much would like someone to fund a mural on a prominent big wall and trust our vision!

What are you currently working on / what’s next? 

E: Currently we are painting a small indoor mural for the San Francisco Historical Society and it's a fun project that will be the back-drop of the city as a part of an interactive children's exhibit that opens next year. 

M: We will also be restoring the our pieces “The Rebirth of Coyoalxaulqui” and “Manifestation of Ixchel,” located on the corner of 18th and Valencia streets on Taqueria El Buen Comer. It was unfortunately run into by a road ragging driver last year. We have a few designs in the works for potential projects too. 

Thank you to Twin Walls for the inspiration. Find more of their w

ork at twinwallsmuralcompany.com and @twinwallsmuralcompany.