Yolo County’s twin hallmarks – farming and food – will be the subject of a large-scale piece of public art planned for the main entrance to the county administration building.

Davis artist Susan Shelton was chosen by YoloArts to create and install a 132-square-foot ceramic mural on the Erwin Meier Administration Building on Court Street. Funding for the $30,000 project came from ArtPlace, a national public-private partnership dedicated to funding community art.

Shelton, a UC Davis graduate, is no stranger to public art and her work can be seen at schools, churches and parks all over Davis. She created the mural at the Davis Farmers Market dedicated to Marie Whitcombe, as well as one at Applegate Nursery School and the Cesar Chavez Plaza housing complex on Olive Drive.

For the mural at Cesar Chavez Plaza, Shelton invited residents there to paint tiles for the project.

“It was such a wonderful way of having people feel like they were part of the process,” she said. “They were very excited to have their work next to mine and I was really proud to have their work alongside mine.”

For the mural on the county administration building, community members will be asked to contribute as well. County employees who work in the building, as well as Yolo County farmers and farm workers will paint a total of 88 community tiles, each of which is 8 square inches, Shelton said.

The finished product will adorn what is currently a big, blank wall alongside the main entrance to the building. Additional tiles will be placed on a seating area at the base of the steps up to the entrance.

“It’s really exciting,” Shelton said of the project. “I’m really thrilled.”

In seeking the YoloArts commission for the administration building, Shelton said she would “create a mural that will bring beauty, color, insight and innovation in exploring the theme of agriculture and art in our county.”

“I will bear in mind that this building … houses government offices and meetings and welcomes elected officials, county residents and voters, and I will create a work of art that holds to the dignity due to it and its citizens,” she added.

It won’t be her first piece of art for a government building either.

Shelton was one of two artists commissioned by the state to create the Commemorative Bronze Seal for Spanish and Mexican Sovereignty, installed at the state Capitol in 2002.

She is also featured in the “Remarkable Women” exhibit at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento, along with her bronze sculpture of “Califia,” and she is the creator of the Minerva Seal, commissioned by former First Lady Maria Shriver, as part of her Minerva Awards program. Her work can be viewed at http://susanshelton.com.

Work on the YoloArts project is already underway and Shelton expects the mural to be installed in February.

Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] or (530) 747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy.

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Susan Shelton stands next to her work “Pet-ophilia.” She was chosen by YoloArts to create and install a 132-square-foot ceramic mural on the Erwin Meier Administration Building on Court Street. Courtesy photo

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