Mural honors spirit of community during quarantine

Gunbarrel resident Julia Williams has been an artist her entire life. A graphic design major at CSU, she has been wanting to paint a portion of the north side Lookout Road underpass for a long time. An opportunity to create her dream piece presented itself, "courtesy" of COVID-19.

As the Courier reported in a July 15 article, The City of Boulder through its Boulder Creative Neighborhood Murals Program offers grants to support public art, especially local artists. Williams submitted several designs which were presented to the community, with the final design funded through the mural program.

The winning design of wolves howling grew out of the 8 p.m. howling during COVID quarantine While some howled to honor first line responders and medical personnel, for Williams it became a way of being together vocally, when physical contact was not allowed due to being quarantined.

"It felt very isolating," Williams said, "but hearing the entire neighborhood howling every night, oh, I'm not alone. We're all in this together. It was a really nice symbol to me of community solidarity. We're all together, even when we can't be."

She said that the mural isn't "super" focused on COVID, but instead commemorates something really cool that happened in the community during a really difficult time.

Williams loves living in the Gunbarrel community and giving back in the way she knows best. She hopes to have the mural completed by Friday, Sept. 11.