The Story of Our River
Clifton Libraries Water Wall
Illustration
Exhibit Design
Iconography
Layout Design
Creative Direction
The Clifton Libraries Water Wall is an immersive, interactive exhibit tracing the Colorado River from the Rocky Mountains through the Grand Valley, into neighboring states, and back to the dinosaur age. Installed in the children's section of the Mesa County Library, visitors press buttons to hear native bird calls, pull levers to activate LEDs mimicking water flow and farm irrigation, and illuminate the Vegas skyline powered by the Hoover Dam. A water drop character guides the journey while bilingual panels in English and Spanish sit under plexiglass. Every element communicates one message: protect our rivers.
THE CHALLENGE
Create a kid-friendly, bilingual, interactive exhibit that communicates the full journey of the Colorado River and everything it supports along the way. The project lived in the children's room of the new Clifton branch of Mesa County Libraries, so it needed to blend technology with art, narrative with education. It had to hold up to rough play from curious kids while engaging audiences across age and language. The original concept started as a CMU senior design project but was left unfinished when the students graduated. Picking it up meant honoring that foundation while building something that could actually live on the wall long-term.
THE PROCESS
In collaboration with Mesa County Libraries, I helped connect the dots for the water wall narrative as well as designed, illustrated the scene. Each detail was worked out in close conversation, always with the diverse Clifton community in mind. Hand-drawn illustrations were translated into digital formats, then brought back into the physical world as a large-scale vinyl landscape depicting the Colorado River from headwaters through Colorado to California even back into dinosaur times. Interactive concepts became tactile elements. Sound and light components layered in sensory depth. The exhibit was developed bilingually in English and Spanish from the start, not as an afterthought. Every decision circled back to one question: does this teach and does this hold attention?
THE SOLUTION
The water wall became a centerpiece of the Clifton Library's children's room. A water drop character guides visitors along the river's path through color, illustration, functioning sounds and lights, creating a multi-sensory educational experience. The exhibit tells the full story of the Colorado River — past creation, current usage, and our future relationship with a resource that shapes our landscape, our communities, and our neighbors. It bridges art and science in a format built to be touched, explored, and returned to. For a community like Clifton, where access to immersive educational experiences isn't always a given, that kind of permanent, free, public resource carries real weight.
Approach
Every project follows the same process. One rooted deeply in the practice of our Signature Thataway Method. →
Solutions
"Working with this artist was always professional with excellent communication. This commission was for a very public space in the children's area of the Clifton library. The details went beyond the artistic work to measuring space and incorporating the artwork around interactive elements. It's essentially a museum exhibit. I love it when kids show me things they have found in TJ's art!"
- Michelle Boisvenue-Fox / ED, Mesa County Libraries
