Meet the artists vying for their historic designs to be featured on the Pueblo levee

Three artists who've created mural designs that incorporate parts of Pueblo history are competing to have their designs featured on the Pueblo Levee Mural Project, which once held the record for largest outdoor mural in the world.

Puebloans can vote through a survey on one of five finalist designs, each of which highlights Pueblo culture and includes the five flags — France, Mexico, Texas, Spain and the U.S. — on the city's seal. Those flags represent the countries and territories that held authority over Pueblo in the past two centuries, according to the city’s website.

The designs had to “tell a visual story of the history of Pueblo and represent the community of the city without recreating the official City Seal,” according to the city’s requirements for entries.

The contest was first announced in October before five designs from three artists were chosen as finalists. One of those designs will join the Pueblo Levee Mural Project, which is around 100,000 square feet and decorated with different artistic and historical representations of the city.

The contest, hosted by the city, is an effort to add to the ever-growing mural that has been continuously updated with artwork since 1979 while incorporating parts of Pueblo’s past.

The winning design will be placed next to the Fourth Street pedestrian bridge, which was recently renamed Charles W. Lee Bridge.

More:Painting Pueblo in a good light: City seeks to spotlight history with mural contest

“We are a city that’s really proud of our history,” said Cynthia Ramu, muralist and coordinator of the Pueblo Levee Mural Project. “(The contest and mural designs) are a chance for people to start asking questions about the history and learn more about how unique our community is and has been throughout time.”

The Chieftain spoke with all three finalists to learn more about their designs. They are listed here in the same order their designs are displayed in the city's survey.

Desiree Talmich, Design 1

Talmich is from Lamar but has lived in Pueblo for almost 13 years. She is a self-taught artist and is mostly familiar with drawing. She is new to mural art, having completed her first mural last fall on the Pueblo levee.

Before she submitted a design for this contest, Talmich spent about a week researching Pueblo’s history and its connection to those five flags, as well as other historical events.

Talmich first drew what she visualized the design could look like before using digital software on her iPad to draw it out, which took about three to four days.

The design Talmich submitted features the word “Pueblo” across the top of the design, each letter separately embedded with one of the five flags, and includes the Colorado and Pueblo flags. The Rocky Mountains can be seen behind each letter.

The bottom of the design is a timeline of Pueblo’s history, Talmich said, with scenes depicting Native American tribes, including the Apache, Ute, Arapahoe and Jicarilla, the El Pueblo Trading Post, which was built in 1842, and the Great Flood of 1921.

Talmich then drew a collection of houses and a train above the flood to represent Pueblo’s development during that era, then finished it off by adding a steel mill and a symbol of one of the city’s most popular modern events, the Chile and Frijoles Festival, to highlight Pueblo’s present.

Talmich said she felt a connection to the project because of her own ties to the Jicarilla Apache tribe, which at one point settled in areas around southern Colorado.

“The more information I could put on (the design), the better I could represent Pueblo and its history,” Talmich said.

Tim Nijenhuis, Designs 2 and 3

Nijenhuis is from the Netherlands and lives in Ontario, Canada. He found out about the contest through the web and mailing lists he subscribes to to learn when a public call for art is sent out.

Nijenhuis is an experienced mural artist, having done more than 100 over 25 years, including some in southern Ontario. He makes a living creating public art.

Two of Nijenhuis’ designs were accepted, each of which uses a three-dimensional effect to enhance other components of the design.

His first design has the word “Pueblo” across the middle and also has one of the five flags incorporated into each letter. The Rocky Mountains are in the background to help create depth, Nijenhuis said, and the cracked concrete at the top and bottom of the design provides the three-dimensional effect.

Nijenhuis’ second design depicts a historical scene — the kind of dwelling that was prominent in the 1800s with a donkey and cart outside of it. The dwelling is surrounded by all of the five flags, each of which is transparent.

During his research of Pueblo, Nijenhuis said he came across a similar image and wanted to incorporate more of the city’s history in a second design that took about a half-day to finish. The first design took a similar amount of time and both were done on his iPad through the program Procreate.

As he researched Pueblo for the project, Nijenhuis learned about the levee mural record and said he would be excited to be part of that history. He called the potential opportunity to bring his art to a new community “very rewarding.”

“I hope that my designs are educational in some way when people look at them,” Nijenhuis said.

More:Sculpture park taking form along Pueblo's Arkansas River Levee

Shannon Powers, Designs 4 and 5

Powers is from Denver and moved to Pueblo in May 2020. She has been an artist since childhood but over the past several years has shifted her focus to painting and design. Some of her work, like Talmich's, is already featured on the levee, including her piece “Wild Iris," which highlights the native wildflowers and mountains of southern Colorado.

Powers also has a second mural on the Pueblo levee — the stormwater water conservation mural — that spotlights the native wildlife around southeastern Colorado.

Using design software, Powers combined elements of her design and spent about three to four hours researching those elements. Her two designs differ slightly with the five flags placed in different in areas, but both depict the flags hovering over two buildings, City Hall and Fort Pueblo, which was a trading post.

Powers' designs also depict the Arkansas River that once served as a border between the U.S. and Mexico and Lake Pueblo because of its ties Native Americans and other settlers and its role in Pueblo's history.

"The river was selected for building the trading post because of nearby trading routes and because the temperate climate at Pueblo's lower elevation, along with water from the river, allowed for irrigation for agriculture," Powers said. " This ideal location in terms of geography and trade was crucial to the emergence of Pueblo as a city."

Powers also said she chose to depict City Hall because it highlights the "development and revival" of Pueblo. She considers the building an "emblem of the progressive era" in Pueblo that people pushed for as they sought greater equity and unity in the community.

“(I wanted people to see) a bit of the history and surroundings of Pueblo and some of its landmarks,” Powers said.

Editor's note: This story was updated to add a quote from Shannon Powers and more information about her designs.

To vote in the contest, visit the Survey Monkey link, which can be found at pueblo.us.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Meet the artists vying for their designs to be placed on Pueblo levee