You’ve seen her Bellingham murals, now you can wrap her art up and take it with you

You may recognize this Bellingham artist’s work from local murals, and now you can carry her Pacific Northwest inspired artwork with you on your water bottle, car and more.

Gretchen Leggitt has painted 17 murals in Bellingham, as well as some in Seattle, Bend and Denver, which can be found on her website’s mural map, and now has turned her murals into unique landscape stickers.

“Being the daughter of two artists, I have been creating since the day I could hold a marker. I was a practicing artist and art teacher for 13 years. I have been a full-time artist for the last five years,” Leggitt wrote in an email to The Bellingham Herald.

Leggitt moved to the Pacific Northwest from Colorado 20 years ago, and has lived in Bellingham for over 10 years. Leggitt painted her first mural in 2018 on the exterior of the Culture Cafe at 210 E Chestnut St.

“From that point on I was hooked. From friendly honks to people passing by sharing words of gratitude, the positive feedback that I receive from communities when installing public art has sealed the deal on this career choice. Having the ability to create impactful positive impact in the public domain is a powerful opportunity. One that I hope to continue to do for as long as I possibly can,” Leggitt wrote.

Leggitt has since expanded her work, creating Hydrascape Stickers, or “infinity stickers” that wrap around water bottles to create an infinite landscape design.

Leggitt started creating stickers after creating the largest mural in Washington state in 2018, the Encogen Mural, a 230-foot-long mural of the North Cascades at 915 Cornwall Ave. in Bellingham.

“Deep in this project, I was continually contemplating atmospheric perspective — changing the scale, hue and value of overlapping layers to create depth in a landscape. Sipping on my favorite Hydro Flask water bottle, staring at these layers of mountains, the idea of Infinity Stickers jumped out at me. This design concept was a simple and completely unique way to reproduce my landscapes with a very cool and original utilitarian function,” Leggitt wrote.

“After three years of dedicated 80-hour work weeks to get Hydrascape Stickers off the ground, learning through trial and error, I can now gladly look back and say ‘I did it!,’” Leggitt wrote.

The Hydrascape stickers are manufactured by a print shop in Bellingham, a block away from Leggit’s studio.

“We take pride in supporting our local economy while reducing our carbon footprint,” Leggitt wrote.

Leggitt’s stickers can be purchased online, as well as in person at Backcountry Essentials, Bay to Baker Trading Company and Cresswell Boggs stores in Bellingham.

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