Mural in a Day Project to Take Place Saturday

Saturday will be all about art in Scotts Valley when over 50 local artists and community members come together for the city’s first Mural in a Day project.

The project, sponsored by  Scotts Valley Artisans, will have people working together to paint a 100-foot mural with the theme, “A History of Scotts
Valley at the Movies,” on the side wall of the CineLux theater in the Kings
Village Shopping Center.

Along with the mural being on the side of a movie theater, Scotts Valley Artisans owner Dawn Teall said the theme was chosen because so many
movies have been filmed in the area over the years.

“There are around 100 movies from the early 1900s to the mid-twentieth century that were filmed in and around Scotts Valley,” Teall said. “And there is a list of iconic movies stars associated with those movies, like Mickey Rooney, Bette Davis and Mary Pickford, and then there is Alfred
Hitchcock who lived in Scotts Valley.”

Scotts Valley Artisans put a call out a couple of months ago for proposals for the mural. Out of the five that were submitted, Teall said that Scotts Valley artist Ruth Poe’s submission was the perfect choice.

“There were so many great reasons why we chose Ruth’s design,” Teall said. “She really understood what we needed and submitted a design that really worked. It’s a wonderfully artistic design and we are really excited about it.”

Teall added that the wall the mural will be painted on has five different sections and the call for proposals asked for either a design for one section or the entire wall. Poe submitted a design for the entire wall that tied all the sections together.

“She really understood the Mural in a Day project and put a lot of thought into it,” Teall said. “She also talked to us about what we wanted. It was much more of a collaborative effort.”

Teall said the design for the wall will have an audience painted across the entire bottom of the wall, then each of the five sections will have a depiction of real black and white movie posters that have been satirized to be relevant to the area, such as “Once Upon A Time in Scotts Valley,” Mary
Pickford in “Little Henry Cowell,” or Bette Davis in “Mountain Mitzi.”

Many professional artists will be out on Saturday to help put the mural up, but there will also be just as many non artists.

“We made the process really user-friendly so that anyone could help,” Teall said. “It’s important that community members that aren’t artists can be a part of this. That’s the theme of Mural in a Day—it’s public art that we are all participating in.”

But the event is not just for those painting. Teall said it is being set up as a spectator sport for the whole community to come watch. Along with the action happening on the wall, there will be live music, a food booth set up by Bruno’s, which will be selling breakfast and lunch, and seating in the shade.

“It’s a community day as well, so even if you aren’t painting, you can still come out and enjoy this great community event,” Teall said.

Though this is the first mural of its kind to go up in Scotts Valley, Teall says it won’t be the last. She already has plans for two in 2013 and hopes to have at least two a year for the next several years. She is also hoping the mural projects will be noticed by the California Public Art & Mural Society, which has a list of “California Mural Towns.”

“We would really like to become a destination place for people to come view our murals,” Teall said.