Del Mar Times

Local muralist adds playful art to her Carmel Valley neighborhood

In one Carmel Valley neighborhood, resident muralist Hanna Daly has transformed a basic utility box and equipment into a cute scene inspired by the animated film “Despicable Me”. Gru and a pair of minions can be found near her home on Carmel Cape, a residential loop near Carmel Grove Park.

Daly’s wife had been encouraging her to paint the unsightly things for almost 15 years as painting utility boxes is something she has done as a professional artist. Daly finally decided to beautify them at Christmas time last year, painting a holiday-themed Gru alongside two happy yellow minions on the “weird transformer things” that are perfectly minion-shaped.

“(After the holiday passed) I was just going to paint over it but decided it would be funny to keep it going,” she said.

She repainted them for the Super Bowl, Gru trading his Santa cap for a Niners one. The snowman on the other side donned Chiefs gear and the top of the box reads “Let’s Play Football”.

“I think I’m going to paint them for every holiday this year.”

Daly has been a muralist for 19 years, starting out small painting children’s bedrooms and branching out to bigger, more ambitious projects—one of her tallest was a 70-foot-tall corner of a building in North Park.

In 2023, she painted 77 murals: “It’s a great job,” Daly said.

Daly is often hired to brighten up commercial businesses—most recently she painted a map of San Diego on the wall of the Performance Contracting office in the Convoy area. Many of her commercial projects are in businesses and restaurants in Pacific Beach and North Park. Her art livens up bare walls all over town, from a cycle gym in La Jolla to a Chinese spot in Ocean Beach and a dance studio wall in Coronado.

Locally, she painted murals for Morning Muse, the former breakfast speakeasy inside the now-shuttered Del Mar Rendezvous restaurant, getting to do “super fun” things on the walls like imagining Snoop Dogg as a hot dog.

She also does a lot of work in schools, oftentimes collaborating with students on the art. She did a bunch of murals at Carmel Del Mar School where her two kids attended—her dragon mural serves as the backdrop for many a school performance.

She recently painted a puzzle exchange box for a family on Mango Drive in Del Mar. The scene of Del Mar bluffs will be on the box where people can swap puzzles like a Little Free Library.

Painting the utility boxes was just one way to beatify her Carmel Valley neighborhood—anything is better than a plain green box, she said.

“My neighbors love it, all the kids stop while I’m painting it,” said Daly of the quick work that takes about an hour.

Daly plans to keep the minions and play around with fun and seasonal stuff on the box. The upcoming month of March is full of possibilities with St. Patrick’s Day, March Madness, Easter and Holi, the Hindu festival of spring, love and colors.

“I really want there to be more art in our neighborhood,” Daly said.

See more of her work at hannasmurals.com