Snowy Range Rainbow
Snowy Range Rainbow, Laramie High School Mural Project. Designed by Sierra Penrod, Sara Eliason & Aeslin Mattimoe with
Rebecca Watson & Shelly Miller. Painted by UW Shepard Symposium participants 2018. Artistic Director: Paul Taylor.
April 2018, 15' x 52"
Our Mural Story
Snowy Range Rainbow celebrates our Laramie River which gifts our community with about 50% of the precious water that flows into our Albany County homes. Looking to the west from the Laramie High School you see the skyline of the Snowy Range of the Medicine Bow Mountain Range. This is a major part of the Laramie River watershed. Our water is drawn from the the Big Laramie to the treatment plant near Harmony and pumped into town.
The other half of our water is supplied by the Casper Aquifer to the east of town and located on the slope of the Laramie Range. In times of drought, our county can be more reliant on our precious aquifer resource.
"The river rises in northern Colorado, in the Roosevelt National Forest in the Front Range. It flows north-northwest into Wyoming, along the east side of the Medicine Bow Mountains, past Jelm and Woods Landing, then northeast emerging from the mountains 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Laramie. The river then flows north through Laramie. In the Laramie Plains it is joined by the Little Laramie River. The Laramie River then continues north through the Laramie Plains and through Wheatland Reservoir. It flows northeast through the Laramie Mountains. Emerging from the mountains, it receives the North Laramie River 5 miles (8 km) north of Wheatland. It joins the North Platte opposite the town Fort Laramie."(Wiki)
The water continues it's journey across the continent to the Missouri River, then the Mississippi and ending in the Gulf of Mexico.
The mural is inspired by Aboriginal art & culture featuring the Sky Father in Blue, the Earth Mother in Gold, and the Rainbow Serpent who brought water to world representing the Laramie River. When we "Care for Our Country", Rainbow brings the right amount of rain and snow (dots), filling our river, giving birth to all life and keeping the ecological balance on our beautiful land.
Artist Statement
"With the mural we tried to represent what we learned was important in Aboriginal culture but also our High School community. Laramie is very outdoor oriented, so we included the "Snowy Range" in our mural as a sense of the Aboriginal "Earth Mother". The sun and snow filled skies is the "Sky Father", and we used snow instead of rain because it snows more often in Laramie. Water is very important to Laramie, through agriculture and our Casper Aquifer.
Here we made the "Rainbow Snake" the Laramie River, the main focus and one of the biggest pieces of the mural."
Sierra Penrod
Participants Statement
" The dots my mom and I did was to go along with the theme of the mural and match and compliment stuff other people did. My mom and I were having a bad week that week so I told her about the mural thing and how my art class helped me with stress and relaxing. She told me she would try it. Doing that mural helped my mom and I. It got my mom wanting to do art just so she could relax. I am very thankful for being able to do that mural and letting my mom too.
Thank you so much!"
Sincerely Fayth
Sara Eliason Sierra Penrod Aeslin Mattimoe
