110 Portraits Off The 101: The Rio Dell Mural

Written By Julia Morgan

Wow, what a summer! I spent 10 weeks of it working on the most intricate, subject rich piece of my career thus far, for the small but mightily heartened Northern California town of Rio Dell. I embarked on the summer solstice to celebrate the town’s community, recreation and industry of the past century by painting 110 portraits of local community members, their families and pets on the 816’ sq. ft surface of a historic building in town.

There were an estimated 500 hours of focused painting that went into the project, where infinite stories were gleaned from passerby about the characters in the mural, others they wished had been included, and all of the tales of love, adventure and grief that make life the vast and ornate feast for experience that it is. 

In Progress Glimpses


The Monument facing side of the mural highlights the Italian families whose presence and contributions solidified the town as a cohesive residential area. Many of the founding families of the region were Italian and Portuguese immigrants who came to the Pacific Lumber Mill in Scotia to work in the mill and in the forests felling trees. Some decided that the meager wages paid to them after their room and board were accounted for (Scotia is one of the oldest standing company towns in the US) weren’t worth risking their lives, and moved their families across the river to the unincorporated town of Wildwood (which later incorporated as the town known as Rio Dell in 1964).


Wildwood was a strip of liveliness and debaucherous revelry unparalleled in the region, and was comprised of a multitude of bars, brothels and ill repute. It also was filled with hardworking families who grew lush vegetable gardens on the corners and who washed their laundry in the Eel river between manning local shops. One such family like this were the Rovai, who ran the Highway Grocery Store in the building the mural is painted on. Descendants of the family painted below still own the building, and many of their relatives still flourish in the area. If interested in a first hand account of what it was like growing up in the area in the 20s, check out Julio Rovai’s (the gentleman on the far left) biography ‘As I Saw It In The Early Twenties’.


The process of getting this project off the ground was circuitous in its own way, as many publicly funded projects are. Thanks to the Facade Improvement Grant offered through the city of Rio Dell, we were able to cover half of the associated labor and material costs for the mural. The other half was funded through a generous grant from the McClean Foundation, and individually commissioned portraits paid for by community members. The original design included 50 portrait spots, but the final piece includes over double that! I squeezed in as many portraits as could fit, and still was regretfully required to turn away many hopeful locals’ submissions. 

One of the originally proposed designs by me (featuring Joe Dimaggio who played in Rio Dell before he hit the big time out east!)

I included a woman in a red dress in the center of the original design, knowing that she would be replaced by a submitted portrait subject. Local musician Sherita Perez was submitted by her brother Elias, with a photo of her playing her red guitar. She took center stage in the piece effortlessly, looking like she’s leading the crowd in some form of impromptu song.

The joyous pair below came by one day to check out the mural and we got to talking— turns out this adorable four year old has telekinetic abilities and once made a small flock of baby chicks fall down asleep simultaneously with her mind. I didn’t question the validity of this tale for a second having met this toddler, she has a presence and gaze far wiser than most adults, let alone children! I obviously had to include one of the chicks in her portrait.

Gallery Of Portraits

This mural wouldn’t have been made possible without the vision and tenacity of Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce, Jim Brickley. Over the past three years, Jim has worked tirelessly with the city to support public art through a variety of projects, with the intention to bring murals to the town’s main thoroughfare. He reached out to me about this project after reading about the mural I painted last winter for St. Vincent de Paul in the Times Standard. Here he is below, painted with his wife, Angie, his beloved clarinet, and parents behind them.

This project brought up all manner of emotion and depth with passerby and patrons of the project. There were two deaths that occurred over the course of this project of members of the mural. Jack Thompson, who had served as mayor from 2013-15 (among other local government positions he held over his long life in the area) entered hospice at the outset of the project, and passed shortly after the completion of his portrait. I was honored to get to meet him briefly, as his wife, daughters and their children brought him by the wall one day to show him his portrait. He was delighted by it, (thankfully!). What a joy it was to witness his reaction to his permanent immortalization.

The second death was of a sweet 14 year old Rottweiler named Wilfred. He passed on the day after I finished his portrait! Bizarrely, I painted both of these characters directly above and below one another on the wall totally randomly… an oddly morbid coincidence. RIP <3

I found myself saying at one point that this mural represents a human thread of an otherwise divinely woven tapestry of connection, community and generational heritage. The dynamic multitude of characters depicted come from different time periods, bringing their own rich histories and memories. The word ‘sonder’, redefined by author Jon Koenig as: ‘the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own’ felt relevant throughout this project. And while this observation may seem obvious, it’s easy to forget the magnitude of every individuals experience outside of our own. The stranger on the street, your friends parents, your city council member… all of their infinite memories and heart and pain are deafening when perceived. I was grateful for the warmth in which I was received by the community, and the many strangers turned friends that were made along the winding wall. 

A little glimpse of my process through a portrait of Linda Barsanti’s lovely mother:

Progress shot with a luminous sunset framing the piece

“[Sonder is] the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”
— Jon Koenig

It was impossible to include every current living resident or their ancestors, (even with the low rural population density!), as much as I wished I could’ve. In spite of this, I was continually won over by people’s stories and tales in spite of my efforts to finish the piece according to our original goals and timeline, and made a couple exceptions at the end to include characters I just couldn’t refuse. Such as, two best friends who are both named Patrick, both young men with disabilities and both beloved by the town. 

Patrick & Patrick

Another example of this, was this family, whose matriarch stopped me one day to ask if I had any more space for new faces. I apologetically explained that I had cut off accepting new submissions the week before. She conceded, and then shared the story of how she met her husband on this very block 40 years prior. He was standing in the rain on the corner as she and her girlfriends drove past. She had never seen him before, but her friends must’ve detected something about her stare towards him, because they all started teasing her and calling him her husband. Sure enough, she ended up meeting him at a party shortly after, falling in love, having a family and sharing the rest of their lives together. I asked their names, and she said ‘Lee and Lee, I’m Leslie and he was Lee’. My mouth fell open, because those are my own parent’s names! I couldn’t say no after that bizarre synchronicity. So it was then, another 6 portraits, what the hell. For the love of the Lee’s!

Other families who I enjoyed meeting vicariously through paint included Linda Rovai’s grandmother and family. Linda’s mother Mary Julia is the small child in the front of her family, flocked by her brothers and parents. She grew up and married Louie Rovai, pictured together directly below on the mural, and raised Linda in Rio Dell.

The reference for this family was challenging to work with due to its age and limited visual information. I was surprised to find that they were one of my favorites to paint! They came alive with color and form out of the tattered image. I like to think they wanted to be painted.

 

The community of Rio Dell is tenacious, good humored and kind. In spite of (and perhaps because of) withstanding an array of tribulations in the past century, not limited to multiple natural disasters, fires, torrential floods, (3 that occurred on the same day in different years!), and a struggling economy since highway 101 was moved around the town years ago, the community is resilient and generous with their time and resources. There are frequent crowd funded projects, fundraisers and events taking place throughout the area that celebrate the community’s veterans, firemen, history and lore. This project was unique in offering a mantle for celebrating individuals of the area on the basis of their love, and little else.

 
 
Julia Morgan
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The Making of the St. Vincent de Paul of the Redwoods Mural