Tile Murals New Pursuit by Idaho Artist

BELLEVUE In Southern Idaho, EJ Harpham is well known for her ceramic cups and platters. Many boast intricate carved images of Idaho trout and wildflowers that are sold at places like Silver Creek Outfitters in Ketchum.

But outside of Idaho, shes known as a tile artist who creates and paints large-scale tile murals that adorn the walls of the Hollywood race track jockey lounge or the exteriors of three-story buildings facing the Pacific Ocean.

Harpham painted more than 2,000 tiles for a 2,000-square-foot mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe that she installed on an exterior wall of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles.

The mural featured not only the vision of the Virgin Guadalupe as she appeared to an Indian peasant, but it featured the flags of the Americas, two famous volcanoes located near where the miracle occurred and the extinct lake where Mexico City is now located.

My work is everywhere but here, for the most part, said Harpham, who works in a spacious studio attached to her home south of Bellevue.

That mural was blessed by the archbishop of the Diocese of Guadalupe. More than 35,000 worshippers came to pay their respects when it opened, so many the fire department was going to shut it down as a fire hazard, she added.

It all started when Harphams parents gave her a potters wheel to mark her high school graduation.

Here, my friends were going to Europe or driving around in a new VW Beetle, thanks to their high school graduation presents, and I got a potters wheel, Harpham said, turning on her native Long Island accent at will.

It turned out to be the best thing Harphams parents could have given her.

Harpham took a couple pottery courses and finally ended up at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in 1977 when the art center was bringing in the countrys foremost potters.

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Tile Murals New Pursuit by Idaho Artist