When Cjay Roughgarden was crafting what would become the largest public art installation in Golden Gate Park’s history, she sought inspiration from her favorite children’s book. The Richmond-based artist and fabricator has long been captivated by the story of “Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent,” a 1975 tale of an enormous maritime monster who is urged by a shark to sink a boat of civilians, but overcomes the peer pressure to save them from the dangers at sea. 

Now, her resulting sculpture named Naga — a bubble-blowing behemoth of steel, aluminum and wire mesh measuring 100 feet long, 25 feet tall and weighing in at approximately 12,000 pounds — is facing a plight of its own.

The process to build the mythical creature started in July of 2023, when early pen and paper illustrations became clay renderings. Within months, more than 250 volunteers joined Roughgarden and co-creators Stephanie Shipman and Jacquelyn Scott to fabricate Naga, carefully shaping the humps on its back so it could fit on a semitruck for safe transportation, and one by one, placing over 5,000 iridescent scales on its body by hand.  

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“A whole team was devoted to his spikes, and another was devoted to his eyebrows,” Roughgarden recounted of the approximately two-year-long endeavor, which took place at her own workshop, Seaport Studios in Richmond, and the Loom, a hub for artists in East Oakland. “We had one group of people painting, another working on the floodlights in his spikes and throughout his body. … He was built to have a very long life.” 

Artist Cjay Roughgarden poses for a portrait in front of her sculpture, Naga, in Golden Gate Park. 

All told, an estimated 35,000 hours of work went into Naga’s installation, with several groups backing the $400,000 project. They included the primary funder of San Francisco’s Big Art Loop, the Sijbrandij Foundation, as well as art production studio Building 180 and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. Also involved in the partnership is Illuminate, the arts nonprofit behind the Bay Lights, the naked, towering R-Evolution statue on the Embarcadero and the rainbow lasers that lit up........

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