When Van Dusen’s asked me to paint a mural in our town's brand new general store in the winter of 2022 I said YES PLEASE. I live in a tiny town in the middle of the Catskills and yes, we have an outstanding inn (Spruceton Inn) and brewery (West Kill Brewing) … (OK, I'm a little biased…) but what we've really needed is that true "third space". Somewhere to grab milk/coffee/eggs, somewhere to catch up on local gossip, somewhere to meet all the neighbors we haven't seen for the past two years! Just spending the day painting in there, I met a handful of folks I hadn't seen for months… a year? It was the low stakes, I'll run into you later anyways, quick catch up I've been missing. So this was my absolute honor. Something I insisted on doing for free because I am so excited to contribute even just a little to the creation of this community space.

I painted the mural in March of 2022. Van Dusen’s itself is now open!

Here are some details. As I’ve been not-so-subtly nudged by many omitted towns, shops, etc, I imagine this mural will be a work in progress, filled in more and more forever.

And of course, if you’d like a (mini) mural of your own I’ve got a print of this available in my online shop!