Library Mural restored - Nathan likes to do the 'impossible'

Santa Barbara News-Press February 1, 1980

By Dave Hardy

"If somebody says it's impossible, then I want to do it." That's way Nathan Zakheim says he undertook the salvage and restoration of the Peake/Warshaw mural now successfully relocated in the new lobby of the renovated downtown library. "This process of removing a paint from a stucco wall had never been done before," said Zakheim, 36, one of the five persons in the nation who specializes in such large-scale art restoration projects. "Now the mural's surface is probably as sound as average automobile paint job," he said. Because of the twin panels' fiberglass and foam mounting, which resembles surfboard construction, Zakheim quipped, "One should be able to surf in from the Channel Islands on them." Although born into an artistic family - his mother has a master's degree in fine art and his father is a muralist who studied with Diego Rivera - Zakheim said he doesn't have the temperament to be an artist. I'm not emotional enough. I'm more of a technician by nature," he said, adding that he learned his skills by apprenticeship. Although he never earned a degree, he spent six ears in college. At U. C. Berkeley he studied literature, music, and psychology - "nothing useful," he commented, like engineering, chemistry and mathematics he uses daily. "Math is very important if you're going to be independent," he said, noting that he uses it "constantly" for formulating paint mixes, and calculating bids. (However, he doesn't do his own taxes, saying, "It's too difficult.") Zakheim said he has a "100 percent track record" for having his bids accepted. "No one that I've ever bid against has got he job," he said. I want people to say Zahkeim state of the art work. If I lost my entire shirt on the job, I'd still do the same quality work. I'm more interested in my reputation within the field, because my field counts," he said. Zakheim said he underbid the library project, but the applause for him at the reopening reception "was more than adequate compensation." Besides, he said he likes Santa Barbara. He graduated from High school here in 1962, and his mother still lives in Montecito. The names of two of his relatives, Thomas Dinsmore and Thomas Hosmer, are the original plaque dedicating the Courthouse, where he repaired earthquake damage in the Mural Room. Zakheim is now looking forward to restoring the Courthouse's deteriorating sandstone figures on the fountain by the Anacapa Street arch - when the docents raise enough money for the project. Until then, he'll continue working out of his studio in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children, engaged in a business that can be feast of famine - and sometimes, he said, "famine of famine."