We don’t have to go far to find joy within our creative community—we feel it everywhere. CCA alum Wally A. Corona (BFA Painting and Drawing 2023) reflects the everyday beauty he sees in San Francisco into a newly commissioned work based on this year’s commencement theme of sparking joy.

Wally Corona is a San Francisco–based visual artist whose work is inspired by graffiti and comic book aesthetics and rooted in class solidarity. For this reason, he chooses to work with simple easy-to-access drawing materials like pencils, sharpies, or ballpoint pens and depicts the imagery he sees in daily life.

In this piece, Corona invites us to imagine a ride on the 22-Fillmore bus line, one of the main routes connecting CCA to the rest of the city. As you hop on and ride through San Francisco, what do you see, hear, or notice? Corona’s finished work depicts the trip with childlike motifs, playful creation, and the feeling of ideas sparked when you’re doing something ordinary.

Wally A. Corona (BFA Painting and Drawing 2023)

Class solidarity is the guiding principle of my practice. It is for this reason I choose to use simple, low end drawing materials (pencils, sharpies, ballpoint pens, etc.) on repurposed refuse, as these materials are readily available to any working class individual. Art that derives its value from the sum of its parts, instead of the labor and consideration involved, is more an expression of the artist’s material resources than their ideas or emotions.

I use imagery from daily life, often during a commute to and from work. These images, combined with hours of meticulous labor, create visual allegories for the challenges of modern urban life. In this project, I aimed to highlight the beauty in communal spaces and the joy of creative expression using Municipal Transit line 22 as well as icons of childhood and San Francisco culture.

Though the 22 is shared with every San Franciscan, it has its significance to the CCA community as our main connection to the rest of the city. Mundane as it may seem day to day, reliable public transportation is a huge factor in the city’s accessibility and its interconnected communities. I’m endlessly enthused to have the opportunity to capture the beauty of our communal spaces, and I hope it resonates with my fellow chimera.