Astoria Mural

During her career, Brown spent 30 years painting for the motion picture and television industry. Between gigs, Brown would return to Astoria to find neglected, old walls downtown and encouraged business owners to spruce them up with a mural. She would then cobble together a budget, pull off the mural, and head back to Los Angeles. Brown’s murals can be found throughout Astoria.

“How can I take something bland and uninviting and make it better?” Brown would ask herself. “I love to give people a little bit of history,” she explains, “and inform the public of where they are standing.” Which is exactly what Brown did with the TLC mural. She worked to create a scene providing insight into the early days of Astoria, featuring the town trolley and an old form of salmon fishing called “seining” using horse-pulled nets.

Brown completed the mural in 2002. Years later, TLC Federal Credit Union covered the mural, and Brown’s artwork was hidden behind a wall of siding. We only recently discovered that a hidden jewel lay concealed behind the walls at this location, so we went to work on a refurbishment project! We’re thrilled to bring Brown back into the project with us as she breathes new life into the mural 21 years after she originally completed it. “I have such admiration for businesses like TLC for preserving and continuing this type of work,” Brown said. “All this history – that’s us.”