A few years ago our town and (Carnegie) library received an Eccles grant to remodel the historic building.  I wouldn't say that it had fallen into disrepair, more just heavily in need of updating, because our town is crazy about it.  It has the distinction of being one of the two most frequented libraries in the country per capita.  That means we all use it. Along with all the obvious needs the library board thought it would be so great to include art in the remodel, and they discussed a large mural that would be placed above the main entryway.  They called me and I was instantly jazzed about the idea.  After a couple of meetings I began some preliminary sketches and grew more excited as I went along and began to develop ideas. 

     Sadly, it all came to a halt when engineers discovered more and more that would have to be brought up to code in the old library and many grand ideas had to be abandoned, including the mural.  

I shelved most of the sketches pinning a couple up on the wall in my studio so I could walk by and sigh at them like a love sick girl for the next couple of years.  I really wanted to do that piece.  I even considered doing it as a speculative piece with the hope of selling it when I was done, but that's a real crap-shoot because clients all have unique visions and motivations, and the bigger the piece the tougher it is to find a space that fits it just right.  Plus, I'd lose my house before it was finished.

    Finally, a few weeks ago while doing some boring sign design I looked up and the sketches caught my eye.  I was about to sigh when I had a thought.  I e-mailed my friend Paul Sweat who I'd worked with before at Wasatch School District on their Legacy Mural a few years back.  For an ex-jock he's got the heart of a poet and is a true patron of the arts.  Also, he has a rather cunning perspective on how art can influence children, hence the Legacy Mural, (see earlier posts) so it seemed a natural place to start.  I explained the project and asked if there might be a place in his district for such a piece.

   He responded immediately with a message that began with "Are you kidding me?!  We will definitely find a place something like this!"

    After looking at some of the designs I had in mind He felt like the Jr. High would be a better fit for the mural and since then I've been sending them a potential vignette' or two a week while they consider if it's something their going to do.  Unfortunately, I haven't heard from them for a few weeks and I'm hoping they aren't cooling to the idea.

It all started with this idea of a couple of kids I really liked.

And an environment that inspired adventure.  This was the original idea but it didn't provide enough space to convey a whole world, so...

I added a very deep area to the left including a lost city, forest and lake with waterfall.  Now possibilities abound.  Yeah, I know it's hard to make out, but this is just to help me work out proportions.  There's no point in developing it very far because the design will likely change a lot.  Fortunately, Paul Sweat and Justin Kelly (Jr. High Administrator) have great capacity for vision and comprehension that doesn't require me to spoon feed them every detail before they understand.  I've worked with actual Art Directors like that and it can be very discouraging.

The following are odd sketches,
 thumbnails and ideas for
 vignettes in the mural.