Highway 29 mural design gets green light. Here’s what it will look like

A permanent, vibrantly colored mural inspired by Napa’s history will soon adorn the city’s new Highway 29 undercrossing.

The Napa City Council on Feb. 6 approved the final design for the two-part mural, entitled “The Weavers.”

A rendering of one part of the mural — from Colorado-based artist David Garcia — shows a sequence of colorful images, such as grapes in a vineyard, a paper airplane, musical instruments and a baseball in a mitt.

Another part of the mural — to be painted upon a tapered wall leading to the other portion — shows a series of four weaving hands, palms up and a swirling pattern of threads running through them.

“This mural, highlighting the rich history, culture, traditions, resilience, diversity and abundant natural environment of Napa will allow the old, new and future generations of people to experience and learn from the energy of the past, and then use this energy and wisdom to inspire and build an even brighter future,” Garcia wrote in the project proposal.

Council members generally expressed praise for the mural and how it would fit the undercrossing.

Council member Beth Painter said the location was exciting, that it had a flow to it while people biked or walked past, and the mural fit the location nicely.

Council member Liz Alessio said she loved how Garcia was connecting the art to the history of Napa.

Garcia, who joined the council meeting virtually, said he indeed conducted research on Napa’s history to propose the mural.

But he said he also added in his own creativity, to help represent it in a way that can be uplifting. It was an exciting project for him to illustrate what a city can look like from his perspective, he said, and to him art is about sharing that.

“In this mural, there’s a lot of symbolic elements there that represent many different things, but the underlying feeling is the energy, the positive energy, the creativity, all the things I feel are beautiful about history,” Garcia said.

The city has budgeted $75,000 from its dedicated public art fund for the project, and $60,000 of that is reserved for the artist.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com.