Yampa River Mural
Friends of the Yampa partnered with local Steamboat Springs artist Jill Bergman and the Steamboat Springs Arts Council to create a large scale mural themed “The Yampa Is Wild.” In partnership with the City of Steamboat Springs, the Steamboat Springs Area Fire Protection District and Routt County Search & Rescue, this mural was placed on the upper south and upper east walls of the Ambulance Barn building along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, next to the footbridge over the Yampa River between 9th and 10th streets.
Background
sThe goal of this project was to collaborate with partners in order to permit, design and deliver a public mural that will be visible along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The outcome of this project was to engage, inspire and educate people about the Yampa River, to allow for creative expression through art, and foster partnerships in hopes of broadening the interpretive scope of what the Yampa River means to Steamboat Springs, the state of Colorado and beyond.
The Yampa is Wild mural impacts residents and visitors and encourage them to develop a caring ethic for the Yampa River, one of the last wild rivers of the Upper Colorado River System. We envision this initial Yampa is Wild mural expanding in the following years and growing to several murals along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs and the Yampa River Basin.
Mural Details
Using vivid colors, this mural included prominent local landscapes, physical features of the river basin, cities which the Yampa meanders along, other tributaries of the Yampa River, local wildlife and 4 of the 5 main uses of Yampa River water including agriculture, environment, municipal and recreational use.
The theme of the mural is “The Yampa is Wild,” and will depict the Yampa River from it’s headwaters in the Flat Tops to it’s confluence with the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument at Echo Park. This mural is approximately 70 feet long by 12 feet high.
The location of the mural at the Ambulance Barn is visible from the footbridge, the bike path, the river and from Yampa Street in downtown Steamboat Springs. Thousands of people utilize the bike path on any given month, especially in the summer when locals and tourists flock to the Yampa for a variety of reasons. Beyond the bike path, people use the Yampa River on a daily basis to fish, raft, paddleboard and tube. This location will serve as a ideal venue to remind people that the smaller Yampa River in Steamboat Springs turns into one of the last wild rivers in the Western United States.
Jill first paintied the mural on a fabric called PolyTab. This material is lighter than canvas and once painting is complete, it was hoisted and adhered to the walls of the Ambulance Barn building. This method has been used for mural projects across the country. The process will retain the vivid colors of the paints more so than directly painting onto the stucco of the building.
After 3 years of creating the Yampa is Wild mural, on June 24, 2019, we hung this piece of art in downtown Steamboat Springs. Over 100 volunteers have assisted Jill Bergman in her efforts to make this idea a reality. The Friends of the Yampa, along with Steamboat Creates and all our other partners are very thankful for Jill’s expertise and our communities passion to create something special. Having this mural placed on the Ambulance Barn on the Yampa River in downtown Steamboat Springs is very exciting and satisfying as it will continuously remind us that this river here in Northwest Colorado is very important and beautiful for many reasons.
This collaborative mural project has merged many partners here locally and from afar. THANK YOU to all who have been part of this mural.
Read an Entry from Jill Bergman's Blog
From Jill Bergman’s Blog
March 26, 2018
I’ve been working on something really big…. 250 miles, actually! That’s how long the Yampa River is, from the Flat Tops mountain range to the confluence with the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado. The Friends of the Yampa is a non-profit organization that supports the environmental and recreational integrity of the river, and they asked me to create a mural that features the Yampa River- beginning to end. To help me work through the design, I decided to scale the mural way down and create a 1/2 inch to 1 foot drawing. Next, I turned that into a 35 inch long carved, printed and painted linocut. Now I have both a mural design, and a new edition of original prints.
Each of these linocuts is printed by hand with brown oil-based ink, and then painted with gouache which is very similar to watercolor. They are numbered and the first three prints have been donated to the Friends of the Yampa to help with fundraising for the mural. I’m continuing to work on this project and as I make progress, I will share updates here and on my blog, Art on the Page. If you’d like to help and donate to the mural, contact Friends of the Yampa. If you’d like to help me with mural painting, let me know!
