In January 2021, Jennifer Baker, Sandi Poltorak and I started work on a mural for the new Sleeping Giant School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. This school is for preschool through 8th grade and was designed with many wonderful nature themes in the details of the building. Because it is named after the Sleeping Giant, a nearby landmark in the shape of a sleeping man, I knew that the central part of the design needed to feature the mountain. Additionally, there was interest in honoring the Utes, the Native Americans who used to live in the Yampa Valley and traveled over large areas of Colorado and Utah. With that in mind, we chose to set the landscape in the past and include bison as well as a distant Ute camp. We also enjoyed including plenty of local wildlife, wildflowers, and the Elk River flowing through the valley.
The mural was painted on polytab, a strong cloth that let me paint it before the final installation. First I painted a small version to copy, and printed it out with a grid overlaid. Then I outlined a grid on the full sized polytab panels, and the drew the full size drawing using the grid to help me place all of the elements correctly. Next I painted outlines, and then the full color. Along the way, we had many meetings about the placement of Jennifer’s kiln formed glass flowers and Sandi’s framed drawings.
In July 2021 it was finally time to install the mural! My painting went up first, and then I painted the final wall colors around it. Jennifer’s glass was attached with epoxy. The adhesive set pretty quickly, but the glass needed to be held up with painter’s tape while it was drying, so you see plenty of blue tape in the photos. Sandi’s frames were hung in the special places we had planned.
We loved working on this project and hope the students and staff of the Sleeping Giant School enjoy the mural!