New Fort Bragg mural celebrates the coast’s slimiest hero — and guess who else? Plus roofer rat‑tat‑tat art and a look at what’s coming soon
Little River artist Rebecca Wallace is creating a new mural across from Fort Bragg City Hall, featuring a Mendocino Coast creature arguably more iconic than even the gray whale or the Coho salmon.
A giant banana slug. But we want you to enjoy watching it emerge, so we’re not revealing everything that will appear in the final mural. Follow along as Wallace brings it to life over the next two weeks.
Little River artist Rebecca Wallace teaches art at Mendocino College. Her work includes the Mendocino Film Festival program cover featuring California flowing into Mendocino, as well as murals in Live Oak and in Nevada. Locally, she created a mural inside the Noyo Food Forest Learning Garden with help from local youth, and another at Café Beaujolais in Mendocino.
We were struck by Wallace’s free‑form approach, especially after seeing other muralists work in a more paint‑by‑numbers style.
” I’ve designed all my murals. Oftentimes I work with clients to create the vision that they have in their mind. I teach at the Mendocino Coast campus, where I teach painting, drawing and color, composition and art appreciation.”
We asked Wallace what kinds of art she’s drawn to herself.
“I don’t necessarily have a favorite artist, but I really like older Baroque paintings, and I am inspired by medieval icon paintings. Most of the time I project my love of art into my murals. When this mural is finished, it will have people, and a lot of local flora and fauna.”
And you’ll have to keep watching to find out who the people are — and to see the giant banana slug slowly crawl into the mural. This is yet another creation of the Alleyways Project, which has turned Fort Bragg into a walk‑through art gallery. Their link is at the bottom of this story.
Fort Bragg is such a fun town. We headed uptown for a quick store run for Linda, who’s recovering from minor surgery, and ended up stumbling onto far more than groceries — including this mural‑in‑progress and a terrific video of Redwood Roofing at work, a whole different kind of art. As promised, more photos of the Boatyard Center construction are at the end of this story.
Regional Center building in the Boatyard Center.
Check out all the murals commissioned or inspired by the Alleyways Project — a growing collection that’s turning Fort Bragg’s backstreets into a first class coastal open‑air gallery.
The banana slug is the world’s second‑largest land slug, surpassed only by Romania’s giant leopard slug. They can reach 10 inches in length — and stretch even farther when fully extended. These air‑breathing mollusks are common from Santa Cruz to Alaska but can’t survive hot, dry weather. In parts of the Pacific Northwest, they’ve inched their way up rivers and creeks and, on rare occasions, have even been found in riparian pockets as far east as the Canadian Rockies. Banana slugs play a quiet but essential role in the forest, turning duff — and even dog waste — into rich, loamy soil. They’re best left alive. And yes, they can leave scratches on wood and even low‑grade glass, so if one shows up where it shouldn’t, slip on gloves and relocate it. As for their mating habits, let’s just say we’ve seen them wrapped together in a way that makes “get a room” feel like fair commentary. And if you’re looking for the best selection of banana‑slug toys anywhere on the coast, make a stop at Cleone Grocery and Campground just a bit north of Fort Bragg — their display has to be seen to be believed.
— watch it emerge. The piece is going up on Franklin Street at Laurel, directly across from City Hall.
This reference image is taped to the wall and serves as Wallace’s working guide.
Wallace is a talented artist, and it shows in how much fun she clearly has with her craft.
I’d have smashed a finger and the sunglasses would be somewhere down in the parking lot.
makes it clear the work is already underway.
In a town like Fort Bragg, even a quick errand can turn into a discovery — a mural taking shape, a roofer turning rhythm into art, a banana slug claiming its rightful place in coastal mythology. These small surprises are becoming the rhythm of our days, the Hartzell wanderings that keep revealing how much this community is changing, improving, imagining itself forward. You can feel it in the alleys, in the paint, in the sawdust, in the way nature keeps slipping into our art and our art keeps reflecting the wild, funny, stubborn beauty of this place.
There’s more coming — more murals, more construction, more unexpected moments tucked into the corners of town. Tune in as we keep walking, watching, and reporting on a community that’s rewriting its own story one bright stroke at a time. Fort Bragg is alive, and it’s good to be here for it.
