A muralist with years of experience has been selected to craft a stunning image of a child jumping into a pool of water and creating a “Big Splash” at Woodland’s new Aquatic Center.

Tonight, the City Council is scheduled to consider adopting a resolution that appropriates $100,000 from Art in Public Places funds of the General Fund for Brian Valenzuela to create and install the tile mural.

Valenzuela is a 2003 graduate of Sacramento State and has a long history of developing and installing murals at cities and institutions across California and the nation, including Washington, D.C.

Spencer Bowen, communication & strategic policies manager for the city, noted in a report to the council, the project will be funded entirely with Art in Public Places funds specifically set aside for public artwork.

Bowen stated the fund has generated about $188,000 from in-lieu contributions made by private development projects to satisfy their requirement for public art.

The new Woodland Aquatic Center is located immediately north of the Community and Senior Center, 2001 East St., and remains on schedule for completion before the end of 2025.

The council accepted a staff recommendation to install a mural on the south-facing 17-foot-tall wall March 18, based on a subcommittee report by Mayor Rich Lansburgh and Mayor Pro Tempore Tom Stallard.

Bowen reported the city received five competitive proposals. A review committee comprised of community members, staff, and council members reviewed the proposals and narrowed the field to three finalists, who were then invited to prepare a more refined proposal specific to the Aquatic Center site.

“This review resulted in the recommendation of artist Bryan Valenzuela to create and install the pool’s public art piece,” Bowen wrote. “Valenzuela swam competitively in his youth and attended Sacramento State, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Studio.”

Valenzuela’s proposal, “Big Splash,” aims to capture the “moment of exhilaration one feels by that first leap into a pool.”

“Specifically, the preferred direction depicts a child jumping into an abstracted pool of water while splashes ray out in all directions in front of a ‘mellow sunrise sky,’” Bowen states. “The child figure will be depicted in black and white using a technique involving the use of handwritten text to carve out the shape and shadow of the form.

“While the exact direction is not yet finalized, Bryan Valenzuela will work with the city to gather residents’ responses to a prompt/question centered on pools, summertime, and swimming and then incorporate these responses into the art piece,” he reported. “The artwork will be custom hand-painted and drawn onto large wooden panels, digitally scanned in ultra-high resolution, and then digitally transferred to heavy-duty porcelain tiles to then be installed onto the selected wall face.”

The precise size of the piece is not yet finalized, but it will cover the “vast majority of the 17-by-26-foot area identified,” according to Bowen.

Ground was broken on Aug. 19, 2024, for the $15.3 million Aquatic Center and when completed will feature a competition swimming pool with 10 25-yard by 25-meter lanes, eight competition lanes, shallow learn-to-swim lanes and ADA accessibility.

It will be the second swimming pool in the city, after the Charles Brooks Swim Center, located on West Street near Woodland High School.

Originally, the project — which has been under consideration for around 10 years — was envisioned adjacent to Pioneer High School. But the land eyed for construction was deemed geologically unsuitable because it consisted of clay soil, which could not accommodate the weight of the various swimming pools without shifting.

Fixing the problem would have added an additional $1 million to the overall project.

The city is using a variety of funding sources to pay for the work. Other private donations are coming from the John and Eunice Davidson Fund, Nugget Markets, Lennar Homes, Tom and Meg Stallard, Cobram Estates, Woodland Clinic Medical Group, Pacific Coast Producers and UNICO.

In addition to the actual swimming facilities, there will be shade structures, lighting, sidewalks, deck space, and landscaping with lots of trees.