DIXON, CA (MPG) - Artist Colleen Gnos grew up in Dixon and her family farms here. She painted in preschool here, grew up in Dixon schools, walked the halls of Dixon High School, drove the same streets, and even played in some of the same fields as the students she just finished painting a memorial mural for.

"This work has touched me most," the 1993 DHS graduate said as she began to put away her painting supplies on a bright summer day. "I usually don't spend that kind of time preparing and researching, but it resulted in the most important of my murals and it moved me deeply." Gnos was commissioned to do the mural by Colleen and Jim Schneider to honor their son, Jacob and his friend Jacob Hourmouzus. Both were DHS students tragically electrocuted in March 2019 when they stepped on a metal bridge trying to rescue their dog from a canal.

The Schneiders wanted a special place for students and donated several Adirondack chairs in the quad but also wanted a mural for students to reflect upon.

There would also be a tribute to Samantha Bloom, a junior who died a month later after a three-year battle with a rare form of cancer. Ultimately, the mural would also memorialize Shawn Tutt, who died in a car accident this past spring. He had taught math and social studies for 23 years at the school.

"All the students were affected," said Principal Stephanie Marquez. "This mural is so vivid, colorful and is rich with details, yet it blends peacefully. Every part of this touches me."

Gnos, the artist who owns a San Luis Obispo studio, felt a huge responsibility to portray the students and also felt very honored to be commissioned for the job. Her first task was to study the dimensions that would be 60-feet long and only 3-feet wide, an area that formed the back wall of the amphitheater in the quad at DHS. Almost immediately she saw a pathway in her mind, she said.

Then Gnos called and spoke with the families to get "a feel" for the youths and their interests.

"You feel like you get to know them when you learn about them," she said. She also watched the celebrations of their lives. "That was pretty tough," she said getting teary-eyed. "I have 16 and 14-year-old sons."

She also contacted some of their classmates and slowly, the path started to get more clear in her mind that would show a journey of the seasons, starting with snow in a Squaw Valley scene because both boys liked to snowboard. It would follow the snow melt down to Dixon to sunflowers, almond blossoms, and row crops, and ultimately end at Putah Creek where Jacob Schneider, an avid fisherman, liked to catch rainbow trout.

She and her husband Che Miller, the "mathematical/problem solver" part of the team, mapped out that it would take seven panels all together and what she envisioned was sketched out on a small pad in late January.

When the pandemic hit and her sons came home from school, she admits to getting a bit derailed but painted in the evenings when it was more quiet. It took her six months.

"I might not have gotten so much into the details if it weren't for the pandemic," she said. That included a pair of snowboards sticking up out of the snow drifts, Hedwig the Harry Potter Owl because Bloom was a Harry Potter fan, a pile of camping gear and sleeping bags because the boys loved to camp, and small details like a Dutch Bros. coffee cup because they were regulars at the new Dixon spot. Each item has special meaning including a Biology text book from Bloom's favorite class and teacher. Gnos said she liked hiding things into the mural so people would stare at it to find them.

There are images in the clouds in the sky surrounding the Milk Farm sign towering above the rest of the panels and even a red USC coffee mug is placed at the end to pay tribute to Tutt.

The original plan was to have it finished and installed by the end of this school year. When it was learned that students would not return to the school, it was bitter sweet. It allowed more time but the seniors would not get to see it finished.

"When the school closed, I mourned," said Principal Stephanie Marquez, who also had a senior at Dixon High this past year. "But, for the ones who have seen it, even to staff, it is a gift. I love that it is a mural of moving along. We will be back to normal. And I think when the students come back, they're going to love it."

Gnos painted a last minute addition before installing the beautifully painted panels at Dixon High School: A murder hornet carrying the COVID virus. She sealed the mural this past week and says the painting should last for years to come.

"If I create something and it touches people, I'm very happy," Gnos said. She hopes it brings healing to those who knew them.