If you’ve driven past the NAPA Auto Parts Store on Springville Main Street lately, you’ve probably noticed an eye-catching artistic improvement on the side of the building. Katie Garner, a Mapleton resident, is the artist who brought the classy mural to life.
Garner is currently a Spanish Fork resident who previously lived in Mapleton and graduated from Springville High School in 2002. In 2003, she married her husband, and the couple went on to become parents of seven children. Garner says she’s loved to draw for as long as she can remember. But it was during her senior year of high school that she discovered a love for oil painting.
Garner knew she wanted to become a professional artist one day, so she started to pursue an art education major at BYU. However, she put her education and career plans on hold as soon as she started having children.
About 11 years ago, Garner finally felt ready to pursue her dream of painting professionally. She said that she feels strongly that she’s been called by God to paint.
“I believe art created in love invites light into the world, and heaven knows we need more of that,” she said.
Through her art, Garner shares beautiful depictions of nature, motherhood, and the divine. The NAPA Auto Parts mural is one of her most recent projects. She was selected by the Springville City Public Art Committee from a pool of local artists to paint the project, she explained. The mural conveys a sense of community, nostalgia, and remembering one’s roots.
While the Springville City Public Art Committee provided the primary inspirational context for the mural, Garner said she was given the freedom to develop the design. With the mural being located on the side of an auto parts store, she knew the city wanted a car theme. She also knew the mural should reflect the values of the people of Springville. Using this information, Garner came up with the charming classic car idea and brought it artfully to life.
According to Garner’s conservative estimates, she spent about 25 hours on the design process for the mural alone, and 15 hours planning the logistics of the project, including paint colors, primer types, and how to use virtual reality to project her design onto the wall to scale.
Once all of the preliminary planning was done, Garner dove into the project with excitement and energy. Her son, Rigby, helped prime and block in some of the mural. Together, they dedicated about 184 combined hours to prepping and painting the mural.
For Garner, overcoming her own fears was the most challenging aspect of the NAPA Auto Parts mural project. Although she had painted many murals before, she’d never done an outside mural, particularly on brick. The public nature of the project and the heat exposure added another layer of anxiety, along with the necessity of learning how to operate a boom lift and use technology in a new way to facilitate her painting.
Despite her fears, Garner pressed forward. Soon, she became very comfortable with the very things that caused her the most anxiety in the beginning, and even became a self-proclaimed “pro” at operating a boom lift.
Although she was nervous about painting in public when she first began the project, having visitors soon became something Garner looked forward to each day.
“It was so fun to have people stop in their tracks as they passed by and express wonder and excitement,” she said. “Several strangers asked to take a picture with me. Seeing people’s eyes light up is really my biggest reward.”
Garner had a lot of support from family and community members throughout the project. She wishes to thank her son and her husband, Clint, for their help with the project, and Rob Reed for letting her borrow his boom lift. She also expresses appreciation for friends who encouraged her and for her mom, who walked over to visit her almost daily and fed her lunch several times. Garner also thanks Emily Larsen at Springville Museum of Art and Mike Snelson from Snelson Photocolor Lab for their encouragement and belief in her and her abilities.
“I hope they feel a sense of pride in our community and what they stand for,” she said. “I hope they marvel at the image of historic Main Street and stop to think about the people that came before us, what the town was like then, and feel gratitude for their hard work in laying the foundation for what we are privileged to enjoy today.
“I hope they see themselves as a valuable part of a larger whole than they previously imagined and realize that we are also laying the foundation for our children and grandchildren’s futures,” she added. “And I hope they just have fun taking pictures in front of it.”
Garner has additional art pieces available for purchase at KatieGarnerArt.com.
