LAKEPORT, Calif. — A new mural honoring essential workers and their efforts during the pandemic has been completed in downtown Lakeport.

The mural is on the side of the Meals on Wheels Thrift Store at 120 N. Main St., facing First Street.

Artist Emma Wakefield said she started painting the mural on May 16.

She finished up the actual painting on Monday and put a protective covering over it on Tuesday.

It shows a child in bed asleep, holding a stuffed rabbit, and covered by a quilt with blocks showing farmworkers, teachers, police officers, construction workers, cooks, firefighters, postal workers, store clerks, doctors and other health workers, and utility workers.

In December, the Lake County Arts Council announced that it was planning to install the new mural in collaboration with the city of Lakeport, Lake County Rural Arts Initiative and the Lake Family Resource Center.

Wakefield was chosen in a competitive selection process that launched in the spring.

The Arts Council awarded $8,000 to cover Wakefield’s labor and materials.

Wakefield, who is from Loch Lomond, is a student at San Francisco State University, where she’s finishing her bachelor’s degree in studio art with a minor in education.

She has worked as a teaching assistant and art teacher in San Francisco, where she’s done other mural work. She’s also taken part in group exhibits in Lake County, at the Lake County Olive Festival and the Middletown Arts Center.

Her current work includes looking at the impacts of the COVID-19 shutdown and how it has created new habits and routines.

Wakefield’s goal is to return to Lake County and obtain her teaching certificate.

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