I may be a little partial, but the best mural in Everett is on my fence in southwest Everett. 

Last summer I was more than jealous of all of the murals going up in north Everett. Huge ones on downtown buildings and smaller ones on neighborhood fences and garage doors. 

I noticed my artist friend Rosemary Jones’ social media posts of beautiful line drawings and noted when she mentioned that she was interested in learning how to do murals. I was inspired.

I’ve got a fence in a very unused area of my yard that I only see when going to and from my house. This time of year my red twig dogwoods are in full glory so you can only see a quick peek of the fence from the street. Just enough of a peek that I thought it would bring surprise and delight to me and my neighbors to see something bright and beautiful on it. 

I sent Rosemary a message, we struck a deal and the fun began. I had an idea of doing some Alisa Burke-style flowers. She’s known for bold, beautiful walls of painted flowers. I couldn’t quite afford a full fence of flowers so we worked through some alternate options. Paint colors had to be worked through too. I had originally wanted the design to be focused around deep magenta flowers, but my fence is stained dark and we agreed that the color wouldn’t stand out. 

Rosemary finalized the design, I sourced paint and she got to work. It was a fun process to watch. She had done the design digitally, transferred it to the fence with chalk then laid down a couple of coats of white primer to ensure the colors would pop. Then the colors went on and our excitement grew. She finished the design with detailed black outlines. 

Wow. 

The best mural in Everett.

The Art of Rosemary

Linda War Bonnet represents south Everett on the Live in Everett Team. When she isn’t working, she is running the Westmont-Holly Neighborhood Association. You might spot her walking her dog in the Holly neighborhood.