Butte 52: Week 2 - Murals in Downtown Chico

If you walk around downtown, it's plain to see that Chico embraces it's artists. Buildings (both old and new), newspaper stands, benches are all blanketed with artwork. Around every corner, there are works of art both, beautiful and bizarre, vintage and modern, colorful and curious.

The man with the awesome feather in his hat? That's William Everone, an artist, who has done several murals downtown. He was commissioned to do two sepia-toned murals of a trolley (one coming towards you, and the other moving away) in the City Plaza. 

He is incorporating minerals from around the world in the mural. While chatting with us, he was grinding crystals from Mount Shasta into this violet paint. He has also included sand from Afghanistan into the paint for the mural.

Another mural of Everone's. He wanted us to know that it was part of a collection of art, throughout the country, that spells out "LOVE" on a map. It's called the 23rd Hour Wakeup Call Love Tour.

Here are just a few of the other murals you can find downtown:

The Beatles walking along Main Street. 

The Brooklyn Bridge on the Boys and Girls Club.

Butte 52: Week One - The Lookout

I've lived in Paradise for a few months now and I think it's time, for my new home and I, to get to know each other a little better. So I've decided to start a project, more of a mission. For each week in 2012, I'm going to photograph something from Paradise, Chico, or some other place in Butte County (in case you were wondering, Butte County is in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California). There are a lot of things that make this area special: beautiful parks, one of a kind eateries, local events, historical landmarks, unique shops, and incredible agriculture. I'm going to explore them all while learning to use my new camera.

I saw this under the big sign. I love that this club exists in my town. Maybe they can give me some pointers.

Paradise sits up on a hill, above the town of Chico. To get from Chico to Paradise you have to take the Skyway, a road that winds and turns as you make the slow climb up the hill.

Whenever I drive up and down the Skyway, I pass this lookout point. Well I finally stopped to look and snap some photos.

The sign calls it the "Little Grand Canyon" of Butte Creek.

There are a lot of interesting looking trees reaching out into the sky.