LaCrosse artist Sara Yates finishes fire engine mural on Fire Station 8

Sara Yates' latest mural in LaCrosse depicts three horses pulling a steam engine with two fire fighters. The fire fighters are former city fire chief Bonnie Bigsby and former rural fire chief Red Martin.

Sara Yates has finished another mural.

The LaCrosse artist began work on a steam fire engine mural on LaCrosse Fire Station 8 toward the end of July and packed up her paint brushes from the job last week.

The mural depicts three horses pulling a steam engine with two fire fighters and smoke billowing out the back.

“I wanted it to look like they were coming right off the wall,” Yates said.

The fire fighters, Yates said, are a special addition to the mural.

The fire fighters are Bonnie Bigsby and Red Martin. Bigsby is the former LaCrosse fire chief, and Martin is the former rural district chief.

“They were on the fire department for over 40 years,” Yates said. “They have given so much to the community. They just seemed like the logical choice to put on there.”

Bigsby is depicted as the driver, and Martin is riding on the back of the steam engine.

Yates said putting their faces on the mural was a surprise to Bigsby and Martin.

“I saved their faces for last because it was a surprise,” she said.

Yates said Bigsby's son-in-law, John Ellis, brought him to the mural to show him the surprise.

“He got out of the car and started laughing,” Yates said. “He thought it was great!”

Yates said the mural took a little longer than she expected.

“I started off really detailed, so I had to finish it really detailed,” she said.

Yates said the feedback she has heard about it has been really positive.

“Everyone seems to be really happy with it,” she said. “They're all really pleased with it.”

The artist plans to move on to other jobs. She has lined up two more in LaCrosse.

She will soon be painting a wall on a building owned by Mayor Randy Camp. The building, Camp said, is the old butcher shop building by the mini park. Yates is also going to paint one of the walls on the outside of the grocery store building.

Painting the grocery store wall will put three of her murals on three of the four corners of the Main and Second Street intersections. Yates earlier this summer painted a horse mural depicting a teamster of 12 horses plowing through wheat fields at the intersection.

“It's time to move to the other side of the street,” Yates commented.

She said she also hopes to have the opportunity to paint the wall on the fourth corner.

The grocery store mural will depict the grocery store in its early days.

“It is going to look like the wall has been cut away and you're looking into the store,” she said.

Yates said that mural, as well as the one on Camp's wall, will take some time to finish. She estimates the one on Camp's wall to take about two months, and she said the grocery store mural will go into next spring.

“The brick is going to be a challenge,” she said. “That's a big project.”

The mural on Camp's building will be a scene of old town LaCrosse, Camp said.

Yates also has other jobs pending throughout the county as well as with private parties, and she said she will continue to paint for as long as the weather holds up.

“I have gotten a lot of work,” she said. “I am happy to do as many as people want me to.”