New Niwot mural feeds the soul

Bug's Eye View

The building may be small, but Niwot artist Denise Chamberlain has transformed it into a colossal piece of public art. The new mural called "Bug's Eye View" wraps around the entire front and southern side of 291 2nd Avenue, the former location of Niwot Rental and Feed.

The new owner of the property, John Fischer, reached out to Chamberlain to create the mural. "I just told Denise to do whatever she'd like," Fischer said. "She told me what she wanted to do and I said, 'That's great.' It turned out beautiful."

"This building is right here in the heart of downtown, and here it was this gray cinder block," Chamberlain said. "I wanted people from the street to be able to see it and really get a feeling of a wildflower meadow and also close up, to get the feeling of being completely immersed."

After research, Chamberlain chose to paint 16 native flowers (see the list below). Each of the super-sized plants is a variety that thrives in Colorado's low water, high sun environment.

Being surrounded by a natural life-supporting environment, living a sustainable life, while showing reverence to those before us who have stewarded this land are top of mind for Chamberlain.

"I feel like this meadow ties in with the whole acknowledgement that this prairie was here, these wildflowers were here, the pollinators were here, and it's a link of humanity. This is a connecting thread," Chamberlain said.

Like nature in its randomness, Chamberlain said the mural was created in an unsystematic way. Elements weren't so much placed beforehand, but rather were revealed in the creative moment. Bees, birds, butterflies, a fox peeking around the front corner at a bunny on another corner of the building, all surrounded by grasses and rocks reflect the haphazard way nature plays out and makes this mural one that viewers will spend time exploring.

Chamberlain's other Niwot masterpiece is on the west side of what was then Excel Electric and is now owned by Harrington Stanko Construction on the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and Murray Street. Painted in 2011, "The Spirit of Niwot" was created at the same time as the Niwot Road underpass mural. Both were the first two murals in town.

Chamberlain allowed community members to put their own touches on her first Niwot mural and that same community-minded outlook with the latest mural led Chamberlain to invite guest artists to collaborate with her on this huge scene too. Local artists Destiny Scriggins, Lee Scriggins, and Becky Moore stepped up to paint flowers and insects.

Moore said she was happy to contribute because "it was such an ugly building and I knew it would be fun to make it more beautiful."

Chamberlain recently painted a mural of Ganesh on a Boulder garage door, but murals aren't the only art form that keeps her busy. After recently taking courses on frescos in Mexico City and Florence, Italy, Chamberlain was immersed for a year full-time doing Venetian plaster on the interior of a local house. She also created and installed a floor-to-ceiling forest with actual aspen trees poles and stained glass leaves in the entryway of the First United Methodist Church of Boulder.

In a joyful kind of twist, when Chamberlain was a teenager, her family owned a feed store in Cedaredge, Colorado. She fondly recalls how it became a community hub for farmers in the area. That positive experience gave her an affinity for Niwot's feed store and, as fate would have it, she painted birds on the outside of this former feed store where she used to buy bird seed.

Design Review Committee

The building is located within the boundaries of the Niwot Rural Community District (NRDC) and as such, is subject to set architectural guidelines. While painting was already underway, a member of the Niwot Design Review Committee (NDRC) asserted that the mural needed to go through the design review process.

Niwot Cultural Arts Association president Bruce Warren responded to Boulder County's hearing notice with an email to Boulder County, pointing out that a mural is not simply paint on a building, but rather is public art, which is not subject to review by the NDRC under its regulations. He also pointed out that other murals within the NRCD did not go through the design review process, nor should they have been required to.

Fischer hired attorney John Gaddis to represent him at the joint NDRC-Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting Department hearing held on Nov. 9. Following a short discussion about two colors in the multicolored mural that were not within the prescribed color palette parameters, the NRDC gave its approval.

Boulder County planner Denise Grimm responded to Warren's email after the hearing, claiming that the mural colors were reviewed by the NDRC as "trim colors."

What's next for the building?

As for the future of the property, Fischer said that continuing to operate the property as a feed store was not financially viable and that the industry wasn't one he had knowledge about. For the time being, he's finding other uses for the 1,500 square-foot building. He's reached out to various community organizations to see if there are any synchronicities with their needs. Over Halloween he allowed the Niwot High School Key Club to use it for their haunted house and in the spirit of the holidays, he offered the space to the Niwot Cultural Arts Association and Open Studios from Boulder to use for a retail artists' market from Nov. 18 through Dec. 24.

Fischer said, "I want to keep making it look nicer, like I want to take down the fences and move them back and clean up the bollards."

Fischer said Niwot architectural firm Fletemeyer and Lee Associates is creating drawings for the property's landscaping as an interim update that would begin around June 2024. Plans include taking out the cement parking area in the front of the building and adding plantings.

"Eventually, I'll probably develop it down the road and do a mixed-use modern building," Fischer said. "The current building doesn't have a lot of potential going forward, but economically, now is not the time to do that."

There are some preliminary drawings for the new building, Fischer said, but no formal plans aside from retail on the first floor and residential on the second floor.

Immediately following the purchase of the property in May 2022, Fischer put it back on the market for either lease or for sale at a significantly higher price than what he paid for it. He said he did that, "just in case, because I got in the door before they had even really put it on the market."

While Fischer had been a customer of the feed store, he didn't realize it was for sale. He was sitting at The Wheel House and heard someone at the bar mention the store was going up for sale the next day. Fischer immediately texted the listing agent promising a full price offer the following morning, which he made.

Fischer wanted to purchase the property because "downtown Niwot is special," he said. Fischer has lived in Niwot for five years and previously lived in Longmont. In October 2021, Fischer sold the business he'd started in 2000, StickerGiant, a leading company in the label and sticker industry. He maintained ownership and property management of the company's three manufacturing buildings in Longmont.

When asked about the possible impermanence of the mural, Chamberlain said, "It's okay that it doesn't last forever." For her and her artist friends who helped, she said what makes the experience meaningful is the process of painting the mural in the open air in that particular setting, and just knowing that people will view it.

It will last quite a long time however, thanks to Chamberlain's know-how on prepping the walls with a base primer and using exterior house paint versus artist paint, as well as applying a top coat with UV protection. She shared some of her expertise recently when she assisted with the maintenance and repair of the Niwot Road underpass mural, which had started to deteriorate a bit.

Regarding the larger plans for the property, there's no timeframe for when the property will be redeveloped, Fischer said, "I don't know...just let it come to me, just let it be, let it flow. Wu wei."

Applying wu wei seems to be a perfect match for both the future of the property and how Chamberlain created her mural. The concept comes from Daoism and is described as effortless action and being in harmony with nature.

Fischer's last words on what's next were simply, "Watch for good things to come."

Mural wildflower list: Yarrow, daisy, Fox Gloves, Larkspur, Prickly Pear Cactus, Prairie Coneflower, Thistle, Flax, Dandelion, Sky Pilot, Sunflower, Alpine Avens, Indian Blanket flower, Penstemon, Poppies, and Milkweed.

Open Studios artists' market will be open Nov. 18-24, Tuesdays through Sundays, 12 to 6 p.m. Open Studios is a visual arts non-profit organization based in Boulder.