History Speaks in Art

“History Speaks in Art” is an episode interview with artist Lauren Sinnott about her recently finished Ukiah History Mural for “The Positive Fantastic” podcast. I travelled to the small coastal town of Point Arena to join the artist in her home, surrounded by countless works of her art, to discuss her latest and most impressive project.

Upon entering Lauren’s home, I saw that her walls were lushly decorated in framed drawings, paintings, and creative pieces. For years Lauren has had a life as an artist, even taking on the moniker “Art Goddess” to describe her wide world of artistic exploration.

Her sewing machine occupied a table in her living room, at the ready to create. She showed me a purse that she had sewn recently with a velvet vulva boldly showcased on the front. Apparently Lauren has a history with sewing yoni art pieces. I have to admit that part of my interest in interviewing her was simply to know more about that aspect of her creativity!

Lauren regaled me with tales of her adventures in artistry and even some stories about her years as the Mayor of Point Arena, as we sat down to record an episode about the mural she created. For the last several years, Lauren has been steadfastly working on painting a mural on the side of the Ukiah Conference Center which is 19 feet tall and over 150 feet long, features 26 different panels and over 200 portraits of local people. 

For “The Positive Fantastic” podcast episode, Lauren explains how she came to be involved in this epic project and she explores how she choose what to include in her overall design of this comprehensive expression of Ukiah’s past, present, and future. 

You can see images of the mural along with a bit of the background story about how Lauren organized the mural by visiting my YouTube channel.

If you live in or near Mendocino County, I highly recommend making the trip to go visit this mural. The painting is complete. In the near future several plaques will be added to the work, to share more about the local history. Lauren also hopes to create an audio tour that will allow people to learn more about the background of the mural, including some of the stories that made it onto the wall. 

Lauren is planning to have a celebratory opening of the mural on Sunday June 12th, 2022. Be sure to check out her website about the mural, to see updates about the event as the date gets closer. You can view the mural in its entirety at the site, and tune into our interview to hear her speak directly about her inspirations and creations.

You can discover a wealth of information about why Lauren chose different images to represent each panel, the background stories about the narratives and personalities depicted, and work in progress photo documentation of the mural from start to finish both on her site and in our interview.

You can also contact Lauren through her email: lauren@artgoddess.com and you can follow her on Facebook @ Lauren Sinnott