BOUNTIFUL—Something beautiful is blooming at The Book Garden on Main Street. A huge mural is being painted on the side of the building filled with color and fun shapes turning a brick wall into an art piece.

“We wanted to do something that would knock their socks off,” said Walldogs muralist Steve Estes, who traveled from Kentucky to create the mural. “I had a contemporary piece in mind. I came up with the Starship Eden Intergalactic Library. It gets the book theme without being a specific ad and something that fits the wall.”

Estes said he sent the design to The Book Garden owner LeAnn Jorgensen for approval. “I told her to be brave on this, something that would create interest and be nice down here. She agreed and the design was decided upon.”

The concept for a mural came when Jorgensen was made aware of a grant from Discover Davis that was available. “We did receive the grant from Discover Davis which will be matched by The Book Garden to pay for the mural.”

 Jorgensen said they started looking into murals and found out about the Walldogs. “We contacted them and asked if there were any Walldogs in our area. They put us in touch with Steve.”

Estes and his daughter Camilla Estes Cannon have family in the area so they were willing to come to Bountiful. “It gave us an opportunity to visit them and squeeze in a mural too.”

The father and daughter travel all over to paint. “I’ve done several murals in foreign countries,” said Estes. “I did my first mural in 1971 in Japan. I do a lot of contemporary work with unusual themes. This is the original relationship between a male and a female as they travel through space and time.”

“Dad is the main designer,” said Cannon. “We make a map of the design and project it on the wall. If you don’t project it you have to do a grid pattern and that’s a lot of work.”

“She’s been following me around since she was a little kid,” Estes said. “She started when she was 8 years old.”

“We did Christmas windows together,” Cannon said. “When I was 13 dad told me he wasn’t going to do Christmas windows anymore so I started doing them on my own. I’ve been doing it for 22 years. Outdoor murals like this I’ve been doing for five or six years.”

Cannon said her brother and daughter have been helping too. “We’re having a good time. It’s been a big family affair. There’s three generations of muralists working on this wall.”

“This is quite the experience giving it to a town,” said Estes. “People have brought us food and water. Everyone has been so giving.”

It’s almost a spiritual experience, he said. “When we leave it, it belongs to everybody. They can feel like they’re a little piece of it.” λ