San Francisco-based illustrator (and TBI contributor) Jenifer Wofford contacted us about a cool new project she's working on called Earthquake Weather, an homage to the natural disaster that hit the Bay Area on October 17, 1989. With the 25th anniversary coming up, in homage to this huge event that affected so many lives here, she's collecting stories from people who lived through it and illustrating their memories. So far, Jenifer has about 40 stories, but she'd like to have many more before October 17.
Jenifer explains that her project is a labor of love, that she mostly wants "to preserve some intimate, collective Bay Area history." As someone who experienced another major California earthquake, I wanted to know more about the Loma Prieta, so I asked Jenifer a few questions about Earthquake Weather, and about what she was doing in 1989 when the big one hit:
Where were you living when the quake hit?
I was still living at home with my family in suburban Walnut Creek. I'd recently graduated high school and had zero interest in going to college, so I was working two slacker jobs (mall, cinema) and saving money to travel and escape Contra Costa County as soon as possible.
What were you doing at the time?
Ironically, I wasn't even in town! I missed the quake by about 2 hours – I was driving back solo from visiting friends in San Luis Obispo, and didn't realize anything was amiss until I got caught up in unusually crazy traffic in San Jose around 7 p.m. I didn't listen to my car radio, so I had no clue what had happened. I walked into my parents' home, and was absolutely floored when I realized what I'd just barely missed. I spent the evening and next day obsessively watching/listening to news about the destruction.
Has the quake shaped your life and/or how you perceive the Bay Area?
I don't know that the quake immediately shaped my life at the time, but in recent years I've been really struck by the enormous amount of change that the Bay Area has been through since then, and how, 25 years later, that quake now seems like a very significant generational marker and a rupture.
How one remembers Oct 17, 1989 definitely separates those who were here from those who weren't, which is not to suggest that I'm pitting the longtimers against the newcomers. I do feel like there is something to this notion of shared histories that we're rapidly losing here, and this seemed like a simple, tender way to try to reconnect people and memories.
What was the impetus for this project?
Every fall, someone from the Bay Area mutters superstitiously about "Earthquake weather," which I love. It's shorthand for "Oct 17 was ominously hot and dry and look what happened." It's totally nonsensical, regional, and hilarious (in a poignant way). As a Bay Area native, born in SF, I have deep affection for this highly local misperception.
Originally, I wanted to make "Earthquake Weather" a painting series, but soon realized that I wanted this to be more collaborative and immediate, so I turned it into a web project with occasional illustrations. When I realized that the big anniversary was coming up quickly, there was some urgency to start collecting these stories and memories now. The painting project is still happening, but it's on its own pace.
What's your favorite story that you've collected so far?
Oh jeez, it's really hard to pick. Every day, I'm getting new ones that I adore. At the moment, my favorites are probably Cheryl Dumesnil's and Patricia Wakida's stories – they're just SO steeped in the weird minutiae of Bay Area '80s life that I really adore. Cheryl's piece, Genius of Love, has had me on a Tom Tom Club marathon listening session ever since.
I also enjoyed having to do a decent amount of historical research (aka Googling) to find accurate reference images of a 1983 Mercury Lynx dashboard, and of KPIX anchor Wendy Tokuda at that time. A big public art project I did in 2008 necessitated a ton of similar local research to make my images, and I've realized that I really love this aspect of the projects I work on.
If you have memories from the 1989 earthquake and would like to see them illustrated for Earthquake Weather, Jenifer invites you to share your story.