Photo courtesy of Paula Camacho
Maximus Vogt
The Ramspondents
New murals around Fort Collins don't just add color to the city but spark conversations on mental health.
Each year, the non-profit FC Mural Projects puts out a call for local artists across Colorado to submit designs, then matches them with a local business to paint their mural on. For 2025, the theme for the mural designs centered around mental health as the organization partnered with the Allience for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County. FC Mural Projects claims that murals decrease crime and vandalism, increase community morale and increase traffic for businesses.
One of this years’ 13 muralists is Denver-based Paula Camacho; she puts mental health, spirituality and change at the forefront of her mural. Camacho's new mural can be seen on the back of Los Tarasco’s restaurant at 622 S. College Ave. The work features a sunset landscape at dusk with mountain vistas in the background and a snake shedding its skin in the foreground.
Camacho was originally paired with a different restaurant but after that fell through, FC Mural Projects matched her with Los Tarasco’s. It just so happens that the owners of Los Taroscos had an important connection with her imagery.
“They had like a friend who passed away by suicide who was really fond of like hunting for rattlesnakes so they wanted a snake in there,” Camacho said.
For Camacho, the shedding snake represents change and the eye painted on the gutter at the center of the mural represents an “earth spirit” that watches over everything. Camacho said mental health, spirituality and the earth go hand-in-hand for her.
“I don't necessarily think you need to be a spiritual person in order to be mentally healthy, but I think if you are spiritually unhealthy and whether you know it or not, your mental health is going to suffer,” Camacho said.
Most of Camacho's other mural projects are based on the natural landscape as the Earth's spirituality is crucial to the inspiration of her work.
Camacho’s mural can be seen from the Dalzell Alleyway, which was renovated by the city in 2011. This is a part of a long-term project the city has undertaken to create more pedestrian passageways and increase drainage. Some of the most common sites for FC Mural Project’s artists have been on business that butt up against these alleyways.
According to FC Mural Project, murals can decrease vandalism by 95% and increase business walk-ins by 50%, increasing the visibility of stores as the murals are shared in social media posts and self-guided mural tours.
Camacho's mural can also be seen alongside the “Para Mi Familia” Mural that was completed in 2023 by Greeley-based Armando Silva. Commissioned by Mujeres De Colores, a local charity that focuses Hispanic cultural education, Silva’s mural honors the Latino community in Fort Collins.
Maximus Vogt is an art history major and journalism minor at CSU, active in fine art happenings on campus. He is interested in the intersection of art, community and news.