Bibbey's Shell Shop Gets New Facelift

Saturday's class was not the usual one for The Art Kids of San Diego County.

We all met in front of Bibbey's Shell Shop located at 903 Seacoast Dr. in Imperial Beach, CA.

Instead of canvas, the medium was the front wall of . It was time for a face lift and so the kids with brushes in hand performed a bit of magic and changed the outer appearance of the front of the store.

The major difference was a visit from "Lorax and his trees."

Artist Chris Padilla skillfully painted the character with his assistant 14 year old Austin Hoffman painted the images onto the front of the building. One may see the Lorax, a furry creation invented by Dr. Seuss.

This was done in honor of his 108th birthday March 2. Along with the Lorax one may see a mermaid, a surfing dragon, parrots, palm trees, toucans, and a tiki carved into a palm tree. These and other things can be seen on the front face of Bibbey's Shell shop. There are three walls that one may see and all of these have been painted with murals. It is all part of the art education of The Art Kid program. Most of the time these young artists work on real world projects. These provide the experience necessary to help the kids grow into professional artists.

Owner Mike Bibbey together with the director of the Art Kids have an agreement. They may use his shell shop for the kids to express themselves with their art and he gets new murals every six months. The people of Imperial Beach love to see the new changes applied to the building and they bring their cameras to photograph themselves in front of their favorite character or scene. This has been going on for close to nine years with great success. It makes Bibbey's one of the best attractions in Imperial Beach.