ST. GEORGE, Utah — The city of St. George is having around a thousand of its residents create a lasting legacy that will go inside the city’s new city hall.
Their painted porcelain tiles will be assembled into a 12-foot by 24-foot mural that will go above the entrance above the new city council chambers.
Lloyd and Philippa Sutton brought their sons Ezrin and Jonah inside the historic St. George Social Hall, where they were painting tiles.
"So I drew a dinosaur with a pink background and then some cactuses,” Ezrin said. “I drew the sands down here, and the sun, and then I drew the sky."
Brother Jonah was helping his dad paint the reservoir near Snow Canyon.
“We're gonna make fire bolts in the water," Jonah said.
"We all came together knowing that the new city hall was going to be a project for the 2025 calendar year. We wanted to do something that involved our community and involved the arts," said Peyton Lee, the Community Arts Manager for the City of St. George.
The 1,000 tiles painted by residents young and old will form a 12 by 24-foot mural above the entrance of the Council Chambers at the new St. George City Hall.
"I can't wait to see the city hall finished and see our tile in the mural," Kathy Taylor said.
There were rules for the tiles, including no words and a specific color palette, as the Canadian mural marker Mural Mosaic will ultimately combine all the tiles to make an image of hikers and cyclists in Snow Canyon State Park.
And when Ezrin Sutton gets older, he will be able to see a time capsule of his childhood on the tile he painted.
“Maybe one would get smacked in the face by accident,” he said. “That would hurt. That would really hurt, yeah."
