The City of Walnut Creek is pleased to announce the completion of a major work of public art by Bay Area mural artist Kristin Farr.  

About the Mural

Titled West Coast Barn Quilt, this massive 28 by 16 foot mural features a symmetrical geometric design in the form of a radiating star. It is prominently displayed on the exterior wall of the Lesher Center for the Arts, overlooking the plaza at the intersection of Locust Street and Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. The design interacts with the existing wall (which is perfectly flat) to create a three-dimensional illusion effect that makes the wall look slightly folded or bent by the contrast in color values.

The mural was hand-painted on site by Farr using no masking tape or straight-edge tools. She selected a customized palette of 16 colors in response to her impressions from walking around downtown Walnut Creek, and asking passersby “what’s your favorite color?”

Noting that the Lesher Center and the new mural mark the northernmost point of the City’s downtown Arts District, Walnut Creek Mayor Justin Wedel observes that “this vibrant, eye-popping work of art will catch the imagination of viewers and serve as a bright and colorful signpost for the Arts District”.

About the Artist

Kristin Farr’s paintings are directed by color and influenced by folk art practices. Her brightly colored, often geometric designs create a three-dimensional illusion that is both playful and captivating. Farr’s Magic Hecksagon paintings are a nod to her family’s roots in Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.

Farr is a visual artist and arts journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to her studio and public artwork, she curates art projects for Facebook’s artist-in-residence program. She has exhibited her work widely in the Bay Area, including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Berkeley Art Center, and Palo Alto Art Center. She has also completed mural commissions and public art projects for Kaiser Permanente (Sacramento, CA), Facebook Headquarters (Menlo Park, CA), Pinterest (San Francisco, CA), Berkeley Art Center (Berkeley, CA), Taipei City Zoo (Taipei City, Taiwan), and Bonnaroo Music Festival (Manchester, TN).

About the Project

With Farr’s mural, the City of Walnut Creek inaugurated a program to create murals on publicly visible walls throughout the downtown area.

The Lesher Center's mural wall was constructed to serve as the “canvas” for murals that will change periodically. Farr’s mural will be displayed for up to five years before a new mural concept is solicited from artists.

Kristin Farr and her winning concept were chosen from a pool of talented artists by a selection panel that included Walnut Creek Mayor Justin Wedel, Councilmember Kevin Wilk, Arts Commissioner Glynnis Cowdery, Walnut Creek arts advocate and Bedford Gallery docent Carol Fowler, and arts professionals Ken Harman, Director of Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco; Michelle Mansour, Director of Root Division, San Francisco; and Leo Bersamina, artist and professor of art at Diablo Valley College. The panel’s recommendation was approved by the Walnut Creek Arts Commission before Farr began work on the mural.

Location: Near the front of the Lesher Center for the Arts building at 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, CA

Image Caption: Kristin Farr, West Coast Barn Quilt, 2018, acrylic paint on DiBond panels, 28 x 16 feet. Photo courtesy of Liz Payne and Josh Isaacs.