Calling it “the tallest mural I’ve ever done,” Edmonds muralist Greg Hartman has completed the Edmonds Mural Society’s newest mural, “Evolving Edmonds,” a montage of historical Edmonds images, painted on the side of the Comstock Jewelers building downtown. “It was a bit intense, but the people at the Mural Society were really nice to work with, so everything turned out OK,” Hartman said.

“It’s a fascinating piece,” Mural Society spokesman Jeff Stilwell said. “My favorite part is that Greg carefully included actual historical figures from our past in his mural.  For example, that really is Vern Sill unloading stock for the Feed Store right after World War I.” And, Stillwell added, the mural shows the Cloud family celebrating their 25th anniversary as publishers of Edmonds’ former newspaper, the Tribune-Review, in 1946.

The mural features four panels highlighting different time periods in Edmonds’ history, in keeping with the Mural Society’s theme this year of A Moment In Time. “In preparing my concept, I walked the streets of the city, talked with the people, browsed through the stacks at the historical commission, Hartman said. “One day, it just dawned on me: No town is a town without the people.  You can remove just about everything else, but not the people.  After that the concept came on me pretty quickly.”

With such exacting detail, the mural took almost two weeks to paint.  “We’re using the very best of materials,” noted Mural Society artist liaison Manya Vee.  “NOVA paint has been made by a family in Culverton, California, since the ’60s.  It’s the first choice in quality for muralists all around the country, and we want our murals in Edmonds to be the very best.”

The Edmonds Mural Society began by raising its first mural, “A Day in Edmonds,” by muralist Pat Brier, last fall and is raising five more murals this summer. Currently seeking 501c(3) status, the Edmonds Mural Society is entirely volunteer-run and relies exclusively on the donations and the support of its dues-paying members.  More information is available at www.EdmondsMuralSociety.org.