Town offered masterpiece mural

The best things in life truly are free.

Just ask members of the La Conner Arts Commission.

Commissioners at their video-conferenced meeting last Thursday reviewed the proposed donation to the Town of a striking four-panel, 20-foot mural sporting a sweeping panoramic view of La Conner.

The family of the mural’s creator, master artist Bob Patterson, is making the panels available to the Town, Mayor Ramon Hayes said.

“It’s every bit a masterpiece, that’s for sure,” said Hayes, at the 30-minute Zoomed session.

Hayes envisions Maple Hall as the locale for the mural, which depicts La Conner from Rainbow Bridge to the marina.

“I don’t know where else to put it,” he said. “Maybe the Garden Club, but it wouldn’t have as much (public) visibility.”

Town Councilmember John Leaver, who serves as a liaison to the commission, suggested placing the mural high in the Maple Hall foyer under protective plexiglass.

Town Administrator Scott Thomas, also in the meeting, suggested scouting Maple Hall, an option that garnered support from commissioners and Town Public Works Director Brian Lease.

Patterson completed the mural in 2014, having put in about 700 hours. It was displayed that summer at the Museum of Northwest Art.

Leaver noted that a smaller version can be viewed at Tillinghast Postal & Business Center. Hayes invited commissioners to “stop and take a look” at the roughly half-sized rendering.

“The proper protocol,” said Hayes, “with any piece of art that the Town takes in is we want to run it past the Arts Commission first.”

Which is why the Patterson mural made the meeting agenda, along with the installation of a modern shoreline-inspired Richard Nash sculpture and an update on Art’s Alive – dubbed “Art’s on Pause” by Commissioner Craig Barber, in reference to cancellation of the annual fall event due to coronavirus concerns.

Tentative plans are for the Nash sculpture, donated by George Drake, to be put in place atop the Benton Street stairway the first week of August.

“A few things have to fall together for that to work,” cautioned Hayes.

Unfortunately, the virus crisis will prevent a large celebration for the sculpture’s arrival, Thomas said.

“Usually,” he said, “we would like to have some kind of public celebration for a donation of this kind but that’s probably not possible in the age of COVID. We want to protect lives.”

Thomas said current COVID-19 statistics confirm it was “the right call” to shelve Art’s Alive in 2020.

Artists lined up for this year’s Art’s Alive have shown interest in committing next year. They have not slowed down their work, Barber said.

The commission is resuming its regular monthly schedule, now via Zoom, meeting 9:30 a.m. Aug. 13.

“I’m sure your roles will get busier as we move past COVID,” Hayes told commissioners, “and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.”