Highway Art Mural Fresno - Roy Rendahl Trimordial Studio Las Vegas

Trimordial Studio - Audio Video & Graphics

Fresno Highway
Mural Project

Roy Rendahl - Freelance Owner, Artist, & Engineer
Multimedia project studio in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Contact: trimordial@thefaro.com

Fine Art | Graphic Design | Photography | Web Design & Hosting
Highway Mural | Patent | Industrial & Machine Design | Architecture

8' x 20' mural "Wilderness" by Roy Rendahl with over 33,000 ceramic tiles
in 42 colors located on Sierra Freeway 168 in Fresno, California, USA.

Pixelated mural design © Roy Rendahl

I pixelated the scanned photo in 42 colors on his Macintosh with ClarisWorks (AppleWorks) and Photoshop
to make it look like a mosaic tile mural. I then submitted the design for a California Highway Beautification Project
sponsored by the Rotary Club of Fresno and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
Several designs were chosen in 1997, including mine, to be installed along freeways in Fresno, California.
One of the judges for this selection was Jeanne Falk Adams,
owner of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite National Park, California, USA.

Original Sierra photo © Roy Rendahl
The original 35mm photograph taken by Roy Rendahl while backpacking and camping at about 8,000 to 9,000 foot elevation in the Kaiser Wilderness area of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in east central California.

Groundbreaking Ceremony for Roy Al Rendahl's musral.

Groundbreaking Ceremony for Roy Al Rendahl's musral.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

Roy (center, wearing white shirt, sun glasses, and tie) with the Roosevelt High Art students during the public Groundbreaking Ceremony held at the mural location on December 2, 1998.

Construction site for Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Construction site for Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Mural construction site
Shown during the building of the mural
base and backing structure.

Unveiling Ceremony for Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Quote from the Unveiling
Ceremony invitation:
"The distinctive design of this mural will encourage community pride by offering a timeless visual appeal to the traveling public and enhancing the environment."

Quote from the selection jury: "It was unanimous amongst the jurors that your submission depicting the Wilderness both artistically and accurately reflects the diverse environment surrounding Fresno."

Tile colors

Tile color cards (left), and
one print out page (right)
In 1998, I was asked to pick out the actual ceramic tile colors to be used for the final 8' x 20' mural. I printed out 24" x 24" sections of the mural at 1/3 size on 40 pages of 8.5" x 11" paper. Each pixel in the design is made up of 4 finished tiles. I spent about a week determining the color of each pixel in the Photoshop picture, calculating the real tile color, and then writing the color code numbers on the 40 pages of print outs (above right).

Student mural assembly of Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Student mural assembly of Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Student mural assembly

Fernando Hernandez' Art 2 Class at Roosevelt High School in Fresno, California (above and below), used these 40 print outs to guide them in assembling each 24" x 24" section of the mural. There are a total of about 33,000 tiles that are each 3/4" square in 42 different colors in the whole mural.

Student assembly project of Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Student assembly project of Roy Al Rendahl's mural.

Unveiling Ceremony
on the new Sierra Freeway 168
The completed mural had its Unveiling Ceremony on April 15, 1999. Among the speakers were Fresno Mayer Jim Patterson, Dr. Carlos Garcia - Superintendent of Fresno Unified School District, William E. Dabbs - Principal of Roosevelt High School, and Bart Bohn - Caltrans Central Region Director. Music for the event was provided by the Roosevelt High School Band.

"Wilderness"
Roy Rendahl in front of his completed mural next to the Sierra Freeway (Route 168)
at the Shields Avenue Interchange in Fresno, California, USA.