SECTION SIX

panel 24 service

The panel illustrates service in its many forms, from the care of medical staff for patients to reporters informing their communities. Military service includes the ultimate sacrifice, that of one’s life.

Two realities of life in California over the four years painting this mural guided my imagery: increasingly ferocious fires and the Covid-19 pandemic.

AND THEN in 2020, it needed to be about our medical professionals and first-responders as well!

In 2020 the global pandemic began and my subject matter needed to expand to include a scene of medical workers treating Covid-19 patients. I worked from an image of the new ICU at our local hospital, Adventist Health. In this scene, I painted the 100th portrait in the mural! (See who they are on the panel page.)

Dr. Trotter has worked in Intensive Care and local Emergency Rooms for decades. He is well known and also well recognized! I painted this scene during the last two days of painting and already observed four people recognize him in the mural.

This photo reveals the third major element of subject matter in the panel, military service.

This was the last day of painting for the season, Veteran’s Day, on the 11th day of the 11th month, which was when the armistice was signed in the 11th hour, ending World War I. My subject matter, unplanned, was military service and I completed the 101st portrait in the mural, that of Stephen C. Brunton, one of 22 servicemen from Mendocino County who lost their lives in Vietnam.

My great friend (and former colleague in government and transportation) Phil Dow also served in Vietnam and helped me select who to portray and what their stories meant. Petty Officer Stephen Brunton was assigned to US Navy Forces Vietnam, the “Brown-Water Navy” that delivered troops and supplies on the dangerous jungle rivers of the Mekong Delta. These waterways were the only highways in the region. Brunton was leading a column of river craft when the Alpha boat was fired on by machine guns and rockets. He continued forward; the column reached its destination, but not before this Ukiah boy lost his life.

The anonymous figure at the very bottom of service is a prone soldier representing this ultimate sacrifice. The gravestone at his head crosses over into the remembrance panel. A woman kneels in grief before it. She could be his wife, his sister, or the daughter he never knew.

panel 25 remembrance

This is Ukiah’s Russian River Cemetery, with its cherry trees in blossom and Memorial Day wreaths lining the roadway.

This panel depicts how we keep our loved ones with us after they have gone.
We carry them where they can’t go themselves by keeping them in our hearts and memories as we step into the future. In the panel I painted their portraits, framed photos, and gravestones.

Robyn walks by nearly every day and touches the image of her beloved husband Ron in a photo of their wedding. White Wolf honors the memory of his niece represented by the inscription on her grave marker.

panel 26 our future together

Kids are the future! Children will be depicted helping each other cross a creek on a log on the left. Many other portraits with specific meaning have come to life. A boy named Valentino who loves maps is painted here holding a blueprint to the housing so desperately needed in our county.

Below the sustainable solar houses and imagined Circle Village development, you see the 100 block of W. Standley Street. This represents finding full value in the old and new, in using what we have as a community, keeping our downtown and neighborhoods vibrant.

In the west, the afternoon sun is setting on the waters of the Pacific Ocean. On the golden rays are written words in white. They are the aspirational values of our positive future:

• equality
• tradition
• vision
• honesty
• compassion
• respect
• peace
• freedom