The Finished Mural
The Final Illustration Pitch
Linfield Art Alley Mural
August 2025 - 1 month
Client: Linfield University & Visit McMinnville
Measuring at 27 feet long with gaps of window space, I was brought on by Linfield University and Visit McMinnville to design a mural for the downtown’s Art Alley. The Art Alley is an artistic revitalization of an alleyway behind the town’s main street.
As I worked, many community members stopped by to talk or cheer me on, many sharing memories of their days at Linfield. That’s what I live for: projects that interact with a community while also giving more to it. It is my first and only mural depicting a building with a supposed cow ghost!
The before: 8 windows and 2 major gaps
Had that Linfield University text been cleared, it would have been almost 5 feet wide, obnoxiously large for a viewer!
My Inspirations
When some friends from out of town were visiting, they asked to see Linfield and mentioned how they had always heard me talk about it. As we walked, I told them memories of certain areas from campus. They mentioned how strangely connected everything was, in McMinnville and through Linfield. My parents met at Linfield as staff members, and I had worked there for several summers in cleaning, so that “Linfield connection” followed me.
Pioneer Hall, as one of the oldest buildings in town, stood as the roots to generations of students, staff, faculty, and community members who would come to know it well in the future.
Where I started
After I was approached to create a design for Linfield, I scouted out my space. I knew there weren’t any clear rectangle spaces remaining in the Art Alley, so I was determined to make the most of a space with several big windows interrupting the design.
Because of this strange shape, I put Pioneer Hall, the main building, in the largest space, to give it visual power. This mimics how the building stands in real life at Linfield, towering over all the others, as a beacon of familiarity to the town.
The design went through several iterations as committees from Visit McMinnville and Linfield University shared their ideas. The larger “Linfield University” text was swapped for a more subtle sign that allowed the painting to breathe. What felt small on a screen was actually quite big in person, and that “little” sign was over a foot wide! To a viewer walking by, that’s very readable. The purple also shifted to a periwinkle-lavender to further shift your eye to the buildings.
