Community members of all ages showed up Saturday, July 20 to paint the Sunnyland neighborhood’s first street mural. The collaborative art piece, located at the intersection of Dean Avenue and Texas Street, was designed by award-winning local illustrator Keith Negley. It was then painted by volunteers as part of the annual Sunnyland Stomp event.
Sunnyland resident Megan Starr first approached Negley about the project in early 2024. A native of Portland, Oregon, she was inspired by City Repair Project’s work turning intersections into public gathering spaces. Starr also has a background in neighborhood development and worked on similar projects in prior jobs.
“It’s such a fun thing to … see cars go a bit slower through the intersection, take it in and hopefully acknowledge that it’s more than just a street where you drive a car,” she said of the finished project. “People live there — and we love our neighborhood.”
Starr collaborated with the Sunnyland Neighborhood Association to secure funding via the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Project Neighborly grant. Donations by Hardware Sales provided additional funding. Starr also coordinated city permits, even knocking on doors to obtain neighborhood approval.
“Everybody who I talked to — which was probably about 90% of [neighbors] — were all pretty enthusiastic about it,” Starr said, “and were happy to sign off on closing the street and the design of the mural.
Painting took place as part of the Sunnyland Stomp, described online as a “free-ranging celebration of creativity.” In creating the artwork, Negley was artistically inspired by elements like folk art and ornamental flowers. He also designed it to be “forgiving” of factors like young painters and bumpy asphalt.
On the day of the Stomp, Negley enlisted local artist Jes le Bon to map out a grid and outline the mural’s major shapes. Starr then estimates 30–50 individuals helped paint it, with volunteers ranging in age from 3- and 4-year-olds to grandparents. “We brought in way more people than I realized were going to help,” Negley said. “And it came together fast. We were done by three in the afternoon.”
The project is Negley’s first large-scale mural. In the future, both he and Starr would love to see more intersection artwork come to life around town.
“I would be more than happy to do more of these,” Negley said. “Like, how cool would it be if every intersection in Sunnyland had one.”
