Pizza and painting with the police

By Mark Muckenfuss

Audrina Andrada, 10, was on a mission to beat her father with a brush – a paint brush, in fact. 

Sitting at the corner of a table filled with paints and people focused on 8-by-10 boards, Audrina was the youngest member of the recent Pizza and Paint event at the Tides Lounge in Cal State Monterey Bay’s Otter Express. She was determined to do a better job of creating a nighttime landscape – from the reference painting the group had been given – than her father, who was seated across from her. 

The recent event, which offers free pizza, painting materials and instruction, was the second in two years facilitated by Joseph Cox, a detective with CSUMB’s police department. Audrina and her father had participated in the first one. 

“She knocked it out of the park and beat me,” said police commander Daniel Andrada. 

Her painting of a snowman on the beach sits on the fireplace mantel in the family’s home. 

A fifth-grader, Audrina said she might want to be an artist when she gets older. 

“I like when you’re done and it looks good,” she said. 

Cox, who normally walks the campus with the University Police Department’s service and facility dog Mochi, is also a self-taught painter who took up a brush about eight years ago. During his initial interview with the UPD, he mentioned the hobby and the idea of doing some painting classes to help better integrate the police department into the campus community. 

“I said, ‘We could do a paint with the cops.’” he said. “I didn’t think they’d hold me to it.”

Chief of Police Yvonne Gordon not only took him up on the offer; she was one of the class participants. 

“Just to have an engagement with our community that’s more of a social event, it helps bridge the gap created by the stigma of law enforcement,” Gordon said. “I thought it would be a great opportunity.”

Cox said it brings down barriers associated with the badge.

“I think it’s humanizing to see officers just having fun,” he said. “The walls come down and it helps them know our police officers as people.”

It’s also therapeutic, he said. 

“For me, it’s really good for mental health,” Cox said. “When you’re focused on that, you can’t think about anything else.”

Abby Wong, a freshman studying marine science, was enjoying the process. She fell into the class accidentally when she stopped in to fill up her water bottle and was offered some free pizza. It was a good chance to rekindle the skills from after-school painting lessons she took in her younger years in San Jose. 

“I haven’t had much free time lately,” Wong said. “It’s nice to paint again.”

She looked at her work in progress.

“I love it,” she said. “I’ll hang it on my dorm wall. It needs decoration.”

As for who won the Andrada’s father/daughter battle, Cox smiled and was diplomatic.

“It was really close,” he said. “Too close to call.”