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A new mural in Pleasant Grove on the side of the Rogers & Russell law firm is 100 feet long and 24 feet tall. It was designed and painted by Chris Peterson, a local artist who grew up in Pleasant Grove and now lives in Salt Lake City.

Courtesy Rogers & Russell

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Chris Peterson paints the "Welcome to Pleasant Grove" mural on the side of Rogers & Russell law firm. The mural took three weeks to complete and was finished on Dec. 6, 2023.

Courtesy Rogers & Russell

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Chris Peterson poses with Steve Rogers and Nic Russell in front of the mural he painted in front of the duo's Rogers & Russell law firm on Main Street in Pleasant Grove.

Courtesy Rogers & Russell

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A new mural in Pleasant Grove on the side of the Rogers & Russell law firm is 100 feet long and 24 feet tall. It was designed and painted by Chris Peterson, a local artist who grew up in Pleasant Grove and now lives in Salt Lake City.

Courtesy Chris Peterson

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In the weeks leading up to December, residents of Pleasant Grove watched as a mural slowly took over the side of the Rogers & Russell law firm building, turning the white brick into a scene capturing the local mountainscape and nostalgic symbols that represent key elements of the community.

Chris Peterson, the artist who designed and painted the mural, used a technique called creative placemaking to incorporate symbolic images into the artwork.

Some of the symbols included are strawberries and a bucking bronco to represent Strawberry Days. Steve Rogers, founding partner of Rogers & Russell, said incorporating Strawberry Days was important to him because his parents’ first date was at the rodeo. The annual summer festival is held across the street from the mural.

Trees are symbolic, as Pleasant Grove is known as the “City of Trees,” and Mount Timpanogos and the letter “G” are two symbols Pleasant Grove is known for, Peterson explained. The sun peeking above the mountains, Peterson said, is depicted in the same way he remembers the sun looking in the morning when he was growing up in the city.

Rogers said the mountainscape, flowers and trees capture the hometown feel that the residents of Pleasant Grove value.

Rogers and fellow partner Nic Russell started their law firm together about seven years ago with a goal to be part of the community. Over the years, they have donated to the local high school and sponsored other local groups. A few years ago, they bought a building at 170 S. Main St. because they both live in the community.

Rogers grew up in Pleasant Grove and attended Pleasant Grove High School. When they were looking to buy their building, they thought, “It would be really cool to do kind of a ‘Welcome to Pleasant Grove’ mural because it’s right at the beginning of historic downtown for Pleasant Grove,” Rogers said. Creating the mural is their way of giving back to the community and creating a landmark to draw people downtown, he explained.

As their idea began coming together, they started brainstorming ideas for the mural and looking for someone to create it. They searched out of the state and even out of the country, and Rogers, while on a train ride to Chicago, looked at murals in different small towns and on old buildings for inspiration. When he returned from his trip, someone recommended Peterson, a local artist. When they looked at his work, they loved it and called him to ask if he would design and create a mural.

Peterson, who now lives in Salt Lake City, said he jumped at the opportunity. “It was fun for me to get into the designing of it because I grew up in Pleasant Grove,” he explained.

Rogers and Russell told Peterson their ideas, and Peterson came back to them with a design, incorporating little pieces that make up Pleasant Grove, and they loved it, Rogers said.

“The memories I have of growing up, climbing up to the “G,” … were profound for me and made me kind of prioritize those things in the design,” Peterson said.

Rogers said he, Russell and Peterson collaborated on the design, with Rogers and Russell making slight adjustments or suggestions to Peterson’s overall design.

Peterson said it took about three weeks to create the mural from start to finish, including eight to nine days of painting. He started just before Thanksgiving and finished Dec. 6. He explained the cold weather meant he could not paint every day or for full days, to ensure the paint would dry.

Peterson had help from a few people, including a friend, who did touch-ups and helped with small details, but everything else on the about 100-foot-long and 24-foot-tall mural he painted himself. Rogers’ daughter, who is a sophomore in high school and loves art, was hired by Peterson to help paint some of the flowers on the mural for a few days.

Peterson mainly does exterior murals but also does other art such as studio paintings and murals on other surfaces. His focus is wildlife murals, and he explained, “The wildlife murals are a way for me to really engage people across demographics on the love of wildlife.”

Beloved wildlife, especially local species, “are actually a pretty powerful creative placemaking tool to bring people together around the shared love of wildlife,” he said.

The wildlife aspect of the Pleasant Grove mural is the bucking bronco and a deer in a field of flowers. “Even though this ‘Welcome to Pleasant Grove’ mural is more about hometown pride. A piece of that hometown pride is growing up on the edge of a wild place where there are lots of wildlife encounters to be had,” Peterson said.

Rogers said he and Nic “hope people come, they look at it, just enjoy it, it makes them feel like they can be proud of something that’s emblematic of their town and just gives them another thing that they enjoy about being downtown, about being close to the city and feeling like the city matters to them more than just a place to live.”

Part of creating this mural, which Rogers hopes lasts for a long time for people to appreciate and enjoy, is the hope that it revitalizes downtown Pleasant Grove to create a vibrant atmosphere. “We hope that other owners see our investment and our commitment to just doing things that better the community, not because it’s going to provide any kind of a commercial return,” he said. “It’s just something because we love the community, and we’re here and we want to be here for a long time.”

Not only does Rogers have a personal commitment to revitalizing downtown, but it will be a major focus of his as a member of Pleasant Grove City Council, as he was just voted in this past election.

“I just have a vested interest in Pleasant Grove being rejuvenated downtown and creating a place that people want to come and gather and stay,” he said.

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