'Madonna' party to celebrate mural's new home

2012-12-11T15:14:33Z 2012-12-11T17:13:17Z 'Madonna' party to celebrate mural's new homeBARBARA HENRY Special to the U-T North County Times

ENCINITAS A lovely, surfboard-riding lady whos now well settled into her new home on a caf wall in Leucadia will host her first big party Wednesday.

Everyone whos anyone in town is coming to this party, organizers said Tuesday. The guest list includes Encinitas City Council members and artist Mark Patterson, the man who brought the mosaic to life.

Sponsored by the Surfing Madonna Oceans Project foundation, the free event starts at 5 p.m. in the courtyard area of Caf Ipe at 970 N. Coast Highway in Leucadia. Parking is tough to come by in that part of town, so plan accordingly.

Adoring fans have been flocking to see the mosaic, which features Our Lady of Guadalupe riding a surfboard, ever since it made its first mysterious appearance in Encinitas in April 2011.

Patterson secretly installed the 10-foot-by-10-foot mosaic onto a bridge support along Encinitas Boulevard, but the city of Encinitas forced him to remove it.

He explored other display options, particularly putting it at the corner of Encinitas Boulevard and Coast Highway 101 a piece of land owned by the state parks system. But state officials blocked those plans, saying the mosaic featured a religious image and thus couldnt be displayed on government property. Ultimately, Patterson selected the caf wall a piece of real estate that one of his friends owns and put his piece there last summer.

Surfing Madonna foundation members have much to celebrate, foundation board member Bob Nichols said Tuesday. The organization now has $8,000 it can distribute in grants to improve local ocean conditions. And foundation members expect to add at least $7,000 in the next few months, he said.

Carruth Cellars, a boutique winery in Solan! a Beach, has created a Surfing Madonna wine and is donating $3 from the sale of each bottle to the foundation, Nichols said. And the first-ever Surfing Madonna beer will be introduced at the party, he added.

Next comes the task of deciding how to distribute the money the group has collected, he said.

Board members are looking for ocean improvement project ideas now. Theres one key stipulation: We want to keep (the funding) around Encinitas and Leucadia, Nichols said.

While this is the first big party that the lovely surfboarding lady has hosted since her installation on the caf wall, it wont be the last, Nichols promised.

We hope to throw several more throughout the (coming) year, he said.