Remembrance; Life’s Seasons

(Dixon High School Mural)

it’s coming along!!

Installed July 2020 in my hometown’s Dixon High School, southwest of Sacramento,

CA. This is the most emotional mural I’ve ever been commissioned to create. The 3.5’ x

60’ painting wraps around the outside quad area to honor the lives of three students and

a teacher who died over the last 2 years. My narrative design features a gentle stream

with meaningful symbols to reflect their adventures and interests.

The public art is a remembrance of 17-year old friends, Jacob Hourmouzus and Jacob

Schneider who died in April, 2019 while rescuing a dog in an irrigation canal; Samantha

Bloom, who died in May 2019 following a 3-year struggle with cancer; and Shawn Tutt,

a Dixon teacher who died in a car crash in March 2020.

I painted four seasons and a calm waterway as a life cycle in the mural’s imagery.

Panoramic scenes flow left to right, reflecting favorite seasonal activities and

representations of the four Dixon HS individuals who died. The visual journey shows

unique homages including snowboarding, camping, hiking, and fishing. Families

described stories about the boys’ favorite animals: rainbow trout, ling cod, turtles, a

seagull in a sleeping bag, a pet chipmunk, ‘Rocket, and a pesky raccoon. Samantha

loved Harry Potter, so popular “Hedwig” the owl reigns over pristine snowbanks, along

with her Advanced Placement textbook from her favorite subject in school, Biology.

Math, social science, and technology teacher Shawn Tutt was an alumni of USC,

remembered with a red mug, and the university’s famous logo.

Regional landmarks with historic Dixon icons include local sunflowers, lupine, honey

bees, almond groves, and the town’s familiar “Milk Farm” road sign off Highway I-80.

There’s a Dutch Brother’s Coffee cup, a favorite student hang-out spot. My landscape

also shows CA’s Lake Tahoe, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lake Berryessa, Dixon’s row

crops and Putah Creek, which cycles through the mountains, hills, sand dunes sand

eventually empties into the sea in Monterey Bay - a favorite fishing spot for Jacob

Schneider.

The students selected a passage written in the sand, and attributed to composer Franz

Schubert: “Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts and we are

never the same.” The parents felt this quotation characterized how short life was for this

foursome, and how they made a big impression on others. I hope this mural will also be

a legacy for future Dixon students and staff.