Bay Area-Artist Merges Nature And Concrete With Mural At Marin County Shopping Center

NOVATO, CA — A local artist, who has become known for her ability to incorporate the botanical world into murals often in urban settings, recently finished her fourth mural at a Novato shopping center.

Nora Bruhn, 36, a San Francisco-based artist, finished her most recent mural in mid-April at the Vintage Oaks Shopping Center in Novato.

Bruhn started creating murals during the pandemic when her friend invited her to take part in a project called “Paint the Void.” After businesses were forced to shut their doors during the pandemic, many of them boarded up their windows with plywood. The “Paint the Void” project aimed at filling those blank spaces with art.

Bruhn painted a mural on a boarded up store that earned her attention in the news.

"I have just been riding a wave of commissions ever since 2020 on floral murals," Bruhn told Patch.

Now Bruhn has become known for her elaborate murals often of flowers or other inspiration from nature, but it is no coincidence.

"I've kind of danced between art and the sciences my whole life. When I was a little kid, I was like, ‘I want to be an artist.’ And then when I had this incredible biology teacher in seventh grade, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe science or medicine.’ And then it was art again. And I've kind of always gone back and forth," Bruhn told Patch.

But it didn’t stop in seventh grade. Bruhn would go on to attend the University of Iowa, where she got a bachelor’s degree in Biology. She then moved to San Francisco to study environmental management but dropped out to pursue art in the Bay Area.

Her biology background appears to deeply inform her artistic approach, particularly her focus on botanical themes.

"As far as evolution goes, they [plants] were here before us, and we have co-evolved with them from our inception. And so plants are just hugely important. I love bringing the colors, the textures, the way light is captured through the botanical world, into the concrete world, so we don't forget where we came from," Bruhn told Patch.

She has worked with Vintage Oaks since May 2022 when she completed her first mural and then did two more in November of that year. All three of those murals mainly incorporated flowers. She was glad to come back to work with the shopping center for her fourth mural.

"It's been really sweet working with them. They're in such a beautiful location. I deeply appreciate the fact that Vintage Oaks is supporting the arts and my vision of depicting the natural world on a large scale. Vintage Oaks is an example of a shopping center offering a more human and beautiful experience for the community," Bruhn told patch.

Bruhn is a busy artist who is currently working on the cover of a Mill Valley magazine that is set to be released in August. She is also heading up to Bellingham, Washington at the end of May after winning a contract and a community choice award at a mural festival last summer. Lastly, she has some big plans to host a retreat called “Purposeful Artist” on the island of Antiparos in Greece in October.

Check out her website here.