El Dorado County (Aug 3, 2024) –
Travelers along Broadway in Placerville have likely taken note of a mural project near Save Mart that has been steadily developing before their eyes in recent weeks.
Though the paint on the wall is new, the ideas for the public art piece have been percolating in the minds of Judy Puthuff and her daughter, El Dorado County District 3 Supervisor Wendy Thomas, for around 17 years. After years of wanting to see a public art project brought to one of Placerville’s most bustling areas, the pair resolved to bring their dreams to life, and the pieces finally began to fall into place.
“This story starts back in the ’70s, when my parents built Hangtown Village Square, which has long been the anchor of Broadway,” Thomas recalled. “And as time went on, Broadway never developed past that; it was developed in the ’50s as a corridor, but it was starting to become outdated. So we looked at what could be done to elevate and improve the Broadway corridor.”
Thomas’ efforts began in 2007 by forming an association focused on considering ways to lift the look and feel of Broadway. With Main Street often the subject of focus in the city, those in the Placerville Drive and Broadway districts often feel like they’re playing second fiddle despite outperforming Main Street in sales tax revenue generated for the city, Thomas explained. Through a series of discussions and polls, the Broadway Village Association determined public art was one of the most-wanted things from the community. The question of where that art would be located was easily answered by Puthuff and Thomas.
For decades, the PG&E substation located next to the Save Mart on Broadway has sat relatively unchanged, a long rectangle of corrugated metal — perhaps prettier than an open-air electrical substation, but certainly not a sight destined for postcards. Where others saw a rectangle, though, the mother-daughter duo saw a canvas calling for art.
“We realized that this very large, unadorned building in the middle of the Broadway corridor was a tremendous asset because it was a blank canvas for something beautiful,” Thomas said.
Though the idea was clear, the time just wasn’t right; funding wasn’t available, PG&E was going back and forth about granting permission to paint the building, and things “just weren’t falling into place,” according to Thomas.
Time went on, with the Puthuffs eventually jumping at the chance to purchase the Save Mart plot of land and Thomas working in local government for over a decade. Things slowly came together, with PG&E finally granting permission for the project.
“Wendy worked really tirelessly through those years with PG&E, to help them see the vision, to share in it and finally grant us permission to use the building,” Puthuff said. “They painted the building about a year ago for us and there it was: the canvas was ready, the permission was ready, but we didn’t have an artist.”
Puthuff and Thomas describe how they discovered artist Julie Engelmann, who goes by @artbyjul_ on Instagram, as a perfect stroke of luck. Puthuff was driving through Half Moon Bay and was struck by the beauty of a mural that Engelmann had done; shortly after, she reached out to the artist to see if she would be interested in making Placerville the next home for one of her projects.
Engelmann’s design is inspired by the theme picked by Puthuff and Thomas, “El Dorado County Gold … Yesterday and Today,” and blends familiar iconography that spans the county’s history. Apple blossoms surround a modern woman in farmer’s garb to the left of a stretch of the American River, while the timeless gold panner motif on the right side of the river tells a subtle story about the county’s evolution over time. As the gold spills from his pan, Engelmann’s spray-painted mural will show the gold turn to pears — the county’s one-time top crop — that then change to the apples for which Camino is now famed.
The mural project is being funded by Thomas and Puthuff and serves as a thank you and goodbye postcard.
“This is a gift from my mother and me,” Thomas said, looking at the progress Engelmann had made in her first week painting. “I’ll be done on the Board of Supervisors at the end of the year and will be ending 14 years of public service. I think it’s a kind of poignant and fitting tribute to those initial efforts I started all those years ago to end my public service life with a gift to the community.”
Though the road to fruition for the project has been a long one, Thomas said she thinks the timing couldn’t have been more perfect than now.
