New Water Tank Mural Meant to Break Barriers

"It all started with the crayons," Beto Conejo, artist of the newest mural on a West Jordan water tank (4070 W. 7800 S.), said.

Conejo is "rabbit" in Spanish. Like a rabbit, Beto Conejo is alert, keenly aware of his surroundings, his community. He is also soft and gentle, keen to bring his community together in unity and understanding.

His first taste of mural painting came almost twenty years ago when he was walking home from school with three of his siblings. Artists were sketching and preparing for a mural on the side of a bowling alley. As the week progressed, the artists invited all four to paint with them. "That is what I attribute a lot of my ambitions to become a muralist from an early age."

Not much later, he designed and won a competition to paint fire hydrants around Woodrow Wilson Elementary in Salt Lake City, that were no longer being used.

He spent his teen years composing poetry, drawing, sketching, doodling in his notebooks. When he turned 17 he turned to community events and met artists who gave him practical advice on how to make art a viable career.

Salt Lake Community College and the West Jordan Art Council selected Conejo from a pool of artists, and he was given full creative freedom. For seven months he dug deep, designing something with "substance," not just something with a little color for a blank wall. It took another three months to bring his vision to life.

Conejo's parents immigrated the family from Mexico when he was a baby. He was raised in Salt Lake City, but feels like a citizen of two places. Conejo wants his art to bring people together.

"My hope is that this mural might spark conversations between neighbors and lead to more understanding," he said. "Hopefully it inspires someone, reminds someone, there's like a bright side to everything that we're experiencing. We're all literally in the valley just here living and you know we have to work together and get along. There's a level of humanity that you get to experience when you just talk to someone. I don't think we're talking to each other enough."

This is the second mural on the West Jordan water tanks. See the first Vibrant Mountain Mural.

West Jordan continues to support local art and artists throughout the city. See more from Beto Conejo through his Instagram: @betoconejo_

By Erin Dixon