Call of the West FROM MURALS TO WOODEN TOYS, NATALIE DESTEFANO BEAUTIFIES THE WORLD WITH HER ARTISTIC VISION AND JOIE DE VIVRE.
G
rowing up on the
lower East Side of Manhattan uniquely prepared Natalie DeStefano for her parking-structure mural in the Vail Transportation Center. Surrounded by a cloud of pigeons and carbon monoxide, she painted on a large, concrete canvas one cold October 11 years ago. DeStafano’s “Along the Colorado” follows the spiral ramp that takes cars from the entry level of the garage to the Meadow Drive level. Before a wall was erected at one end, the area was called The Doughnut for its unhindered round shape. “It’s my interpretation of Colorado’s landscape,” the artist explains.
42
VAIL LUXURY G S P R I N G 2 012
S I G N AT U R E L A N D M A R K
PEOPLE & PL ACES
It begins with a mountain lion looming atop the red-dirt rocks so ubiquitous in Western Colorado. From there the river snakes through, spilling out from a distant mountain range. A bull elk bugles between drinks, and the mural finishes with scrubby brush and berry bushes. The Town of Vail’s Art in Public Places board asked artists to submit ideas for the space, and DeStefano’s drawing was chosen. The end mural
Her murals can be seen all over the county. Most are in private homes, but she’s also got work in Fiesta’s and Marko’s in Edwards.
was basically the same as the original drawing. “It didn’t take me any time at all,” DeStefano says about the painting. “I was two weeks into it, and the gal who was in charge of the job told me I had to stop. I told her I wasn’t done, and she said, ‘You’ve done enough. We don’t want it to become too distracting to the drivers — we don’t want them to hit the wall’” Painting for a flat fee, it was the first (and last) time she’s been told to stop painting before she felt she was finished. In her typical easy-breezy style she just shrugged, laughed and packed up her paintbrushes (and her husband, George Turon) and headed home. She tells personal anecdotes with the same sense of carefree je ne sais quoi — stories of happening upon a bobcat in the henhouse, or relocating a lynx who shot out of the back of her car “like Superman.” “Along the Colorado” is huge — 150 feet long. It starts out a reasonable 6 feet tall, but as the spiral continues it grows and grows by degrees. The ending height is 15 feet tall. “George helped me there,”
she says. “We had to use scaffolding to get to those high places, and he blocked in the color for me because I’m afraid of heights.” Having a mural in a parking garage might seem odd — the fumes, the cars, the general dirt associated with internal combustion. “Transportation centers are ideal locations to incorporate public art given the high visibility from both pedestrian and vehicular traffic,” says Molly Eppard, coordinator for the Town of Vail’s Art In Public Places. “As these structures may be a first stop for guests to a community, these oftentimes large and dark structures can be made more inviting through incorporating art. Vail’s Art in Public Places aims to visually enhance the transportation centers through a variety of mediums of art for all to enjoy.” “Along the Colorado” continues to be a locals’ favorite — especially that big, ole cat. Born to artistic parents, DeStefano’s mom, a photographer, relocated to New York City from France after World War II. Her father was a painter whose “real job” was as a vio-
P H OTO C O U R T E S Y O F VA I L T R A I L A R C H I V E S