Mary Winters would be tickled pink at the color palette chosen for the mural project at the Colusa County Librarys main branch on Market Street.
Winters loved color as much as she did books and community, and the once stark white pillars and borders of the county library – now painted pink, yellow, blue, green, and orange – just seems to fit Winters fun loving and happy spirit.
” Mary would just be ecstatic,” said daughter-in-law Jane Winters, about the project now underway. ” Mary was unafraid when it came to color. She would just love it.
Local artists Sierra Reading and Ross Roadruck started painting the library last week and expect to have their work finished by the end of the month. The colors were selected from photographs submitted to the library from community members.
” We received just about 100 photographs,” said Library Director Stacy Costello. ” In the end, the committee sat down and narrowed it down to 11 photographs.
The artwork wont be a mural in the true sense in that it wont depict an actual scene.
” The colors are the mural,” Costello said. ” Its all very abstract. It wont have that traditional mural look to it but an abstract using all the colors of Colusa County to make our library feel fun and welcoming.
Cindy Pronsolinos photograph of the sky over the Butte mountains is represented by the blue.
The yellow is from Supervisor Denise Carters photograph of sunflower fields. Steve Beckleys brilliant sunset over the tulles in Grimes is represented, as are Mitchell Yerxas aerial view of Maxwell rice fields, Penne Arbanasins photograph of wildflowers in Stonyford, and several other colors pulled from the images.
” I think its great,” said Beckley, who stopped by the Library on Thursday to see the work in progress. ” Its a great idea.
Costello said the photographs, many captured on cell phones, represent every town and community in Colusa County, from the east side of the Sacramento River to the foothills near Stonyford; from the northernmost reaches of the county to the southernmost.
” That is what makes it exciting,” she said. ” It was nice that we got a good representation of the entire county. It is a county library and I wanted to make sure the whole county is represented.
When the mural is completed, the photographs will be presented in a display, along with the pantone color swatches that show the colors chosen from the photographs for the mural. The large display will be housed inside the lobby, Costello said.
Once painting of the primary colors is complete, Reading said she and Roadruck would then slip a small amount of secondary color from the photographs onto the prominent colors.
” The secondary can be incorporated onto the pillar in a minimal way so its not just frantic; that is the idea,” Redding said. ” On the big squares, we will incorporate the aerial view of rice fields. Not exactly, but that kind of similar lines.
No taxpayer funds were used in creating the mural, Costello said. The Friends of the Colusa County Library and Jim and Cynthia White Mural Fund covered the cost of the labor. The Colusa County Arts Council and the Rotary Club of Colusa paid for the art supplies.
Cynthia White said the project is exactly what she and her husband Jim had in mind when they started the Mural Fund to help bring life and color to the structures in Colusa. The Mural Fund is a non-profit under the Community Foundation of Colusa County.
That the current project the non-profit helps fund honors ” Grand Mary” makes it even more special.
” Mary painted her house yellow – and with orange trim,” White says. ” People would stop and say, ˜you have to take that orange off there. Mary wouldnt do it. She loved it. She loved color and it made her happy.
In addition to color, Winters loved her community. She was a member of the Friends of the Colusa County Library, the Colusa County Airport Commission, and served on the Colusa City Council, among her many other activities.
White said she hopes the Library project is just the beginning of a brighter community that is filled with color.
For information about donating to the Mural Fund, contact White at 458-2227. –