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Published on 08/04/1999 All articles from this issue

Council mulls millennium mural proposal

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

At its meeting next Tuesday, the Los Altos City Council will be considering a request for a downtown paint-by-the-numbers millennium mural.

Sponsored by the Los Altos Cultural Association as a "fund raiser and a community builder," the idea is to create a mural on the north wall of the building at 75 Main St., a blank wall that faces San Antonio Road, said Mark Smallhouse. He serves as one of the organizers of the project.

The mural has been designed by Los Altos artist Jim M'Guinness. He has created the artwork of the Arts & Wine Festival for the last several years

The mural drawing is reminiscent of a Richard Scarry illustration with whimsical representations of Los Altos the last hundred years: the train, apricot trees, the Pet Parade, Festival of Lights and other elements of downtown Los Altos.

For $25 people will have a chance to paint a place on the mural, which could number as many as 400 separate spots of color.

The life of the mural may be about six months when the property owners may be building on the vacant land next to the wall, Smallhouse said.

Application has already been made to the Guinness Book of Records for what may be the world's largest paint-by-the-numbers mural involving the greatest number of "artists," Smallhouse said.

The building owner and the land owner have OK'd the project. The city's Arts Committee approved the project at its July 14 meeting.

Councilman Francis La Poll had the item pulled from the council's consent agenda at its July 27 meeting.

"I want to understand what's happening," he said. "If (the mural) goes up, will it come down?

"The council is always held accountable. Anytime something is downtown, it is particularly sensitive," La Poll said. "What if not enough people fill in all the spaces?"