Panel summaries:
Click on the list or scroll down for the quick view.
After each summary, a PANEL BUTTON links to all the stories and portraits of real people in that panel.
panel 24 service
The panel illustrates service in its many forms, from the care of medical staff for patients to reporters informing their communities. From volunteering in a fire department or serving on a police force to enlisting in the military.
Two realities of life in California over the four years painting this mural guided my imagery: increasingly ferocious fires and the Covid-19 pandemic.
First in 2018 we wore masks because of the smokey air, then in 2020 it was about contagious disease. Medical professionals and first-responders modeled what the general public was soon encouraged to do.
Who knew how much that picture of me painting in a mask because of bad air quality presaged the masked reality of the Covid-19 pandemic?!
In 2020 the global pandemic began and my subject matter needed to expand to include a scene of medical workers treating Covid-19 patients. In this scene, I painted the 100th and 101st portraits!
The third major element of subject matter in the panel is military service.
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.
The panel page reveals all the portraits and stories:
The subjects of service and remembrance are tightly interwoven.
panel 25 remembrance
At the top 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.
The panel page brings all these memories to life:
panel 26 our future together
Every part of this double panel tells a story, from the Russian River flowing to the western sea while spawning salmon swim upstream, to the bees flying in a figure-8. The four colors of all people emerge from the sacred eagle feather of a Native man blessing the future world. Everyone gathered here stands on the living earth interconnected by the web of mycelium. Each face is a portrait.
A boy named Valentino who loves maps is holding a blueprint for the efficient and affordable housing so needed in our county.
Below the sustainable solar houses and imagined Circle Village, you see the 100 block of W. Standley Street. This represents finding full value in architecture old and new to keep our downtown and neighborhoods vibrant.
In the west, the afternoon sun is setting on the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Written on its golden rays are aspirational values for our positive future:
The panel page tells it all! But first check out my best quote about history below:
We are all walking backwards into the future, only able to clearly see the present and more dimly the past. Ignorance of history is like doing that with your eyes shut.
Ignoring history creates a culture with Alzheimers!
This mural is my career crown jewel, weaving hundreds of stories into an ornate yet realistic tapestry that presents the evolution of community in one place.
Art needs an audience and you are part of that equation!
Another of my top quotes. Art without an audience is lonely.