NEBRASKA CITY – Grimm’s Gardens hosted a reception for Honey Lynn Self Wednesday and a grand opening for her painted mural.

Grimm’s Gardens moved into the vacated, old county road barn in 2014 and DeAnn Michel said she contacted Self after her own attempt at a wall-sized mural underwhelmed.

Michel: “Little by little we’re trying to make it look more like a garden and make it feel more comfortable and more welcoming.”

Self said as soon as Michel showed her the framed space of old grader barn door, she envisioned a tree with lots of big flowers.

 

Self: “It’s really more than what I thought it would be. You kept saying, ‘I think we should add something here’ and I’d be like (sigh) okay. And then it would always look 10 times better. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Self is an artist and owner of Self Expressions Gallery in Nebraska City, but this is her first, large-scale mural.

The mural includes butterflies, bees and a dragon fly, and challenges viewers to count the lady bugs.