A new mural installation on the wall of Hill’s Kitchen cafe literally draws on London-based artist Delaney Kidd’s experiences as a part-time Parkite.
“I have spent a lot of time in the mountains and the ski areas in town, and love them all,” she said. “So, I created the mountains as a backdrop and wanted to incorporate all the ski resorts.”
The cafe’s patrons will see how Kidd, who spends her winters in Park City living with her parents Peter Kidd and Carol Chenevert, represented Deer Valley with Bald Mountain Lift and the Empire, Carpenter and Silver Strike express lifts.
The artist also paid tribute to Park City Mountain and Canyons with renditions of Jupiter, McConkey’s and Bonanza lifts along with 9990 and Orange Bubble express lifts.
“I really tried to pick out more notable lifts and peaks,” she said. “It’s not a cohesive skyline, because that would be way too wide for the wall. So it’s a mashup.”
In addition to the mountains, Kidd worked in some water elements with paddle boarders and people fishing, as well as some well-known landmarks.
“I remember hiking one day above where my parents live at lower Deer Valley and looking over the Deer Valley Ponds, so I put the ponds in, and basically added in more notable Park City places like the McPolin Barn — complete with the American flag adornment — the bike path and the Park City Golf Course,” she said.
Those areas became settings for the silhouettes of figures participating in different outdoor activities that include curling, skiing, hiking, biking and having a picnic, according to Brooks Kirchheimer, co-founder of Leave Room For Dessert Eateries, which owns Hill’s Kitchen, Hearth and Hill and Urban Hill restaurants.
“We opened Hearth and Hill as a gathering spot, and the picnic bench that depicts a catering scene that is representative of the food and events we do out of Hill’s Kitchen,” he said. “To have that and the Park City sign as well in, we have the flag on the White Barn, which was our inspiration for the flag we have at our other restaurant Hearth and Hill.”
Kidd included those elements after talking with Kirchheimer about the mural.
“Brooks told me that community and gathering were the key brand words for Hill’s Kitchen, and to have a gathering of people in the center of the mural would be a good idea,” she said. “So, I made this little scene with people chatting, sitting and playing guitar around a fire.”
Kidd also placed aspens and pine trees throughout the mural, which measures approximately 10 feet wide by 15 feet tall.
“For me, the trees here are such a defining characteristic of the town, and they are nicely coated with snow right now,” she said..
One of the more personal elements of the mural is a rally car, which is an ode to Park City’s Ken Block, a professional rally racer and founder of DC Shoes, who died in a snowmobile accident on Jan. 2.
“I think Ken holds such a special place in so many people’s hearts, including Delaney’s, who used to babysit his kids,” Kirchheimer said. “His loss is so recent to us, so I wanted to put an homage to him that would easily fit into the mural.”
The idea for Kidd to draw a mural for Hill’s Kitchen started when she was on a Deer Valley ski lift with Kirchheimer’s parents, David and Sherrie.
“I think it was my first week here in January,” she said. “On the first chair in the morning I rode up with them, and we got to chatting about living here and what we did for work.”
When the elder Kirchheimers heard Kidd was an artist, things began to fall into place.
“They said they had a big white wall and that they had been thinking about what to do in terms of art or a mural,” Kidd said. “I’ve been to Hill’s Kitchen multiple times and I knew the wall they were referring to.”
Kirchheimer credits his father for initiating the mural’s negotiations.
“We joke that my dad is a guerilla marketer,” he said with a laugh. “When he goes skiing he always carries a handful of Hill’s Kitchen and Hearth and Hill gift cards. And he’s not shy to hand them out to people and talk with people on the ski lifts.”
Kidd sent the Kirchheimers a portfolio of ideas, and met with them to talk about the mural.
“They were mostly black-and-white drawings done with pen, which I primarily do,” she said. “One of the pieces was basically a scene of mountain ski trails, hiking trails, a lake and all of these little silhouettes of people doing various outdoor activities.”
That was the one that caught the Kirchheimers’ eyes.
“David had flagged that one, and said it would be cool to do something similar,” Kidd said. “That was the piece I hoped they would gravitate towards, because I thought it would also be fitting for the place. And once the idea was selected, it was easy to create it in my mind.”
Kidd worked on the mural mostly at night, and had some help from her sister, Avery, a second grade teacher at Parley’s Park Elementary School.
“She was off on school break and came in to mainly keep me company, but also help paint a bit,” Kidd said. “The night we first got into the cafe, we had to set up a projector to display the image I had hand drawn and put into my computer onto the wall. Then we sketched over it in pencil to create our template.”
Kidd, who has loved drawing all of her life and has studied architecture in college, said she and her sister spent about 95 hours on the mural.
“When I worked at night, I would see people looking in the window trying to see what I was doing,” she said. “And I was also fortunate to work in the cafe for three days when it was open.
During those times, Kidd began to realize what kind of impact the mural would have with the community.
“I heard so many kids playing I-Spy and it was funny to see a lot of adults pointing to a figure skiing and saying, ‘That’s me,’” she said.
Kirchheimer shared a similar experience when he and his three-and-a-half-year-old son were biding time one morning in the cafe while waiting for child care to open.
“A father and son began talking about the different parts of the mural, and I heard them ask each other where something was and what another thing was. So, I think it will create great conversations about the great things this community has to offer.”
Furthermore, Kirchheimer said the timing of the mutual couldn’t have been more appropriate.
“Last Saturday was Hill’s Kitchen’s one-year anniversary,” he said. “So it is great to have Delaney share her talent with us.”