A nationally recognized artist will soon install a one-of-a-kind mural on the high glass wall of the Harmon Guest House in downtown Healdsburg, its imagery based in part on a series of painting workshops that gave amateur artists free rein to create what they wanted.
“I didn’t want to be prescriptive and give them my vision. I wanted to hear what they were thinking about,” said Maria de Los Angeles, a painter and muralist now on the faculty at Yale School of Art.
And, more importantly, see what they were thinking about: Some painted kayaks on the river, some focused on Fitch Mountain landscapes, some drew cactus that reminded them of Mexico or giant daisies that reflected springtime optimism. They all gave de Los Angeles insight into what the residents valued about their community, Healdsburg.
About 40 participants in the five two-hour “art-making sessions” at the Healdsburg Museum, Community Center and Library offered to share their artwork with de Los Angeles and the public. The images serve to inspire her four-story mural, approximately 43 feet by 10 feet, which will be applied during the third week of August. It will be publicly revealed at a community party on Friday, Aug. 23, at Harmon Guest House.
“It was not only research for me, but it was a way to connect,” said the 36-year-old artist of the community workshops. “And then all of the participants will be exhibiting with me at the same time.”
The community drawings, most of them acrylics on 9-inch-by-12-inch canvas panel board, will be displayed on a wall at the Harmon Guest House while the mural itself dominates the front window, at 227 Healdsburg Ave.
“I enjoyed participating in the community mural project at the library last week! The event incorporated my three passions: art, history and community-building,” said Gina Riner. “The painting skill level didn’t matter, we just had fun making art together.”
The Harmon House Temporary Mural on Glass is partially underwritten by a $19,000 Public Art Grant from the City of Healdsburg, the largest grant in its 2014 series of six grants totaling $50,000. Other grants went to a free “little library” of art, an infinity mirror, a Russian River live video installation, Ballet Folklorico and other visions.
“I’m excited to contribute this proposal for a temporary mural painted directly on the facade of the Harmon House,” wrote de Los Angeles in her application earlier this year. “The mural would allow for the light to transform the image and for visitors to the city to experience the piece both from the inside and outside of the building.”
The piece, to be created from colored vinyl much like stained glass, would also give viewers both a daytime and nighttime experience, from inside the hotel and out.
De Los Angeles, who lived for a period off Westside Road after attending Santa Rosa Junior College, went on to study at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Yale University School of Art in New Haven. She has since created a number of murals, both indoor and outdoor, from the Luther Burbank Center to the University of Oregon and the hamlet of Glen Ellen, at the Garden Court Cafe.
Her work is densely graphical, filled with ideas and color, like Jackson Pollock or Thomas Hart Benton filtered through Diego Rivera or Orozco. “There was a big connection actually between the Mexican muralist and the American muralist and artist,” said the Mexican-born artist, who has lived most of her life in the States. “I do hope to return at some point—I would love to do an exhibition and a project there.”
Other local support for the mural project comes from the Healdsburg Museum, which organized the several art-making sessions and will archive the community paintings, and most significantly, Harmon Guest House.
“When visitors come here, there’s food, there’s wine, but there’s also other things to experience. And art is one of those that is contemplative and that you can enjoy,” said Circe Sher, co-owner of the Harmon Guest House.
Sher and De Los Angeles met a couple of years ago at one of Charlie Palmer’s Pigs & Pinot events. “We kind of connected through a mutual friend. And since then, we were thinking about doing a project together,” the artist said.
The downtown hotel has always supported artists, primarily local, to create shows and installations at the hotel, she said, pointing to a number of previous projects by Alice Warnecke Sutro, Jessica Martin, the Upside Dance Company and others. (See them all archived at harmonguesthouse.com/hotel/art-installations/)
“Our goal with all our properties is to be permeable,” Sher said. “It’s not a fortress that keeps people out. It’s something for people to flow through. And so showing different artists is a reason for people to come in and see what’s happening.” Harmon is one of three hotels in the Piazza Hospitality group in Healdsburg, with a fourth in the planning stages.
The as-yet-untitled glass mural, and the artwork from the community art-making sessions, will be on view at Harmon Guest House through Nov. 15. While the application of the colored vinyl cutouts that will create the artwork will probably take two or three days, the official opening of the mural is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 23, from 2-4pm.
