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ST. GEORGE — There is a little more "magic" on Main Street this week as a Utah native Chris Peterson adorns the wall of a local bar with a colorful Mojave desert tortoise mural.
"As someone who loves Utah's landscape, I found that the real magic in the landscape is the wildlife — it's those encounters that are my most precious memories in those places," Peterson said. "So that's what I have chosen to direct my art to."
St. George city officials commissioned Peterson to paint the mural as part of the Utah Wildlife Walls project. According to the project's website, it is a grassroots public art and engagement initiative that aims to "celebrate Utah's wildlife diversity and heritage by installing at least one monumental wildlife mural in each of Utah's 29 counties."
It was funded by the St. George Art Commission and the Recreation, Arts and Parks tax in collaboration with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, Greater Zion Convention and Tourism and the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, said Lloyd Sutton, St. George city's active transportation coordinator. The mural is on the Station 2 Bar by Zion Brewery's south-facing wall at 142 N. Main St.
