Trashcan Mural Project: Meredith Waterman Castro

Artist Profile:

I am a proud Cowlitz County resident with four generations of ties to our community. For the last decade, as my kids left the nest, I’ve worked as a licensed real estate assistant. Art has always been in my blood. My grandpa’s paintings still hang around town in local businesses and schools. I have aunts who were in the arts, and I’m also the very proud sister of the founder of Arbutus Folk School in Olympia. We raised another artist in our daughter, who attended Western and is now an art teacher in Bellingham! As for me? I dabble in a bit of everything artistic—from Christmas crafts to painting shoes to my current obsession: cookie decorating. I’ve been married for 30 years to my high school sweetheart. We share our home with two feisty, well-loved Frenchies who have lovingly taken the place of our two kids who are now out doing awesome things in this crazy world. At heart, I’m a sci-fi-loving, book-nerd, dreamer who wishes for a Star Trek-style future filled with peace, acceptance, and knowledge. This piece has been an absolute blast to create! After vaguely requesting some PNW legend ideas from my community on Facebook, I received so many fun ideas I then added. The helicopter in the distance represents a long-time (3 generations) family friend, Ray Pleasant, who flew the rescue missions when Mt St Helen’s blew. A high school friend reminded me we had to have Twilight represented. A beloved grade school teacher suggested our beautiful local totem poles. Many others suggested the Space Needle and Jake the alligator man. I don’t know if he’ll stand the test of time, but I had to add Jimothy! It was a group effort of ideas! There is something for every generation. From Harry Truman’s cabin on the mountain to Bigfoot giving the Vulcan salute and DB Cooper parachuting down. A somewhat newer trend I included is the troll sculptures popping up on our hiking trails by Danish environmental recycling artist Thomas Dambo. There are five decades of local legends thrown in there!