Palmer Bishop’s Attic gets new mural

PALMER — Before this summer, Haley Hohn hadn’t done a lot in the way of formal artwork.

“I just kind of doodled and did drawings for myself on my own,” she said.

When Bishop’s Attic, where she works, got permission from the city of Palmer to put a mural on the outside wall of its downtown shop, and paper appeared in the break room requesting submissions, Hohn decided she’d give it a shot.

She said she wanted to do a bunch of different scenes but wasn’t sure how to tie them altogether until she hit on the idea of weving them all into a woman’s hair. As for what different scenes to depict, she decided she wanted to keep it Alaska-themed — bears, halibut, Bush planes.

“I made a small bullet-point list on a sticky note for like themes that I could probably work on,” she said.

And then, over the course of a few of hours, she drew it all out.

The store went with her drawing, got discount rates on materials and rentals from Spenard Builders Supply in Palmer and Pros Scaffold Services in Wasilla, and brought in artist Emily Longbrake to paint Hohn’s drawing on the wall.

It all wrapped up last week. Hohn seemed very happy with the results and what Longbrake was able to do with her design.

“She did a pretty good job. She changed a couple of things and did a different layout for a few things, but that’s fine, that’s what art is all about,” Hohn said, adding that it was interesting to, “see how a different artist did a different take on it.”

A Sutton resident, Hohn went to Palmer High School and graduated from a Wasilla correspondence course. She has been working at Bishop’s for three years, pricing items in the housewares department. Even setting aside the idea that her artwork is now painted on its wall, Hohn is effusive in her praise of the store.

“I love it. I love that place so much. It’s so awesome. Everybody’s so nice,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.