Leaping with arms outstretched and hands cupped, the laughing children sprint into the fluttering orange cloud.

A mesmerized boy darts here, there, his arm snatching and clutching air. A girl, giggling, makes a protective two-hand lunge designed to softly capture the floating butterflies.

The orange-and-black Monarch butterflies compress themselves as densely as yellow jackets, but they dance silently without menace inches beyond the fingers of their admirers. It is their annual, and still unexplained, visit to their winter home.

This joyful scene, with Space Launch Complex-6 looming in the distance, will be painted this week as the Lompoc Mural Society's 15th Mural in a Day - “Monarch Magic.”

Colleen Goodwin Chronister, of Salem, Ore., will lead 17 artists as they labor all day Saturday on the south wall of the Blacksmith Restaurant on South H Street.

“This year's theme is really interesting to me,” the effervescent master artist said Monday night from Oregon. “The monarchs are the only insect to migrate.”

Chronister once lived in Lemoore and drove her son, Cassidy, to the coast to experience the monarch phenomenon. “I remember his excitement. It's kind of magical when kids look at it.”

Advertisement

She pictured Cassidy and two other kids rushing to the monarchs in a concept sketch that she submitted last February. According to Ann Thompson, fifth-year chairperson of the event, the drawing stood out immediately among seven contestants. “It was an incredible rendering,” Thompson said, closing her eyes to visualize it.

Chronister will be returning to the same vacant lot where she directed the 2004 Mural in a Day (MID) painting of “The Mustard Seed,” which hangs on the opposite side of the lot.

“Colleen has a strong energy about her,” Thompson said, smiling. “She's relaxed. She's fun. She'll say, ‘Don't sweat it, we'll figure it out.'”

The master artist's Web site (chronisterarts.com) makes abundantly clear that she is becoming prolific. She has done a dozen murals since “The Mustard Seed.” Last month in Mariposa, she directed a MID depicting indigenous plants and animals. In May, she enjoyed a mountain-top experience. On a platform 150 feet off the ground she turned the Tulare city water tower into a glass of milk.

“The milk bubbles were three feet across to give you an idea,” she said with a laugh. “It was definitely the tallest mural I've done.”

She arrived in Lompoc from Salem last week and was expected to be at the Blacksmith beginning to draw on the 12-by-48-foot work shortly thereafter. She will also mix paint from 15 colors she has ordered, and she will make assignments to 16 volunteers, each of whom has submitted work samples.

“We break it up by subject material,” not by squares, she explained. “One will have faces, one will have dresses, one will have near butterflies, one far butterflies. There will be something for everyone to do and not be on top of each other. It's not good to have paint in your hair.”

Among her local unpaid assistants will be Vickie Andersen and Carol Oliveira, who have participated on every one of the 14 earlier one-day extravaganzas, and as usual an out-of-towner will come at her own expense to volunteer - Linda Lamb, of Fresno. In past years volunteers have traveled from as far away as Alaska.

Lompoc, effectively the state capital of muraling, was the first city in California to paint a mural in one day. It was a brainchild of former Mayor Gene Stevens after a visit to Toppenish, Wash., where one had been painted.

Other cities, Twenty-nine Palms, Lindsay, Exeter, and Visalia among them, have also done them, but no place except Lompoc has done it each year for 15 years.

The first, picturing Chumash boatmen, is on display on the wall of Valley Homecare on East Ocean between H and G streets. Done in 1992 with Idaho artist Robert Thomas in charge, it built a momentum that has yet to flag.

“We were very lucky that the master artist had done a mural in a day in Toppenish,” said Andersen, who besides being an artist is also chairman of the Mural Society. “I had never done a mural. It was a learning experience for a lot of us.”

Though termed “Mural in a Day,” the work began nine months ago.

In January, Thompson mailed 40 letters to artists who have voiced interest over the years in serving as master artist. In it she stated the theme for the year. In three weeks, seven had responded.

Thompson sent them photographs of the monarch habitat on South Vandenberg. In one, the tower at SLC-6 could be glimpsed in the background. She closed her eyes again. “It was powerful.”

A Mural Society committee evaluated the seven drawings and recommended the top three with Chronister No. 1. The society voted to award a $3,500 contract. “When I called her she was jazzed,” Thompson said. “They dearly love coming to Lompoc.” Then Thompson turned to her remaining tasks - recruiting volunteers and hiring a scaffolding company.

Work Saturday morning will commence at 7:30 and will conclude with ribbon-cutting at 5 p.m. The MID will be surrounded by the Olde Towne Art Fest which will present art displays, live music, dance and drama, and food and drink.

The day promises to be nearly as joyful as kids at the monarch grove.

Correspondent John McReynolds can be reached at 736-6352 or johnny544@verizon.net.

Sept. 25, 2006