Delayed a week by weather – and then starting her first day on the job amid some raindrops – international muralist Emily Ding has created a unique new piece of artwork for Oakdale.

The artist was brought in by OakdaleARTS to paint a 75-by-20 foot mural on the side of a business at 213 E. F St., with the wall painted facing the Bianchi Community Center, across the Oakdale Town Plaza.

Ding is from Houston, Texas but her work is known throughout the world. She said she has been working with members of the OakdaleARTS organization for about a year to create the design.

“We really wanted to make sure we had something that is both related to the community and the area but also something new and invigorating and brightly colored,” Ding explained. “We settled on tree swallows that are going to be flying over oak trees so it’s kind of like if you see them flying over treetops.”

Also figuring in to the piece are pointed acorns that are common in the area.

For Ding, spending several days immersed in her work is typical, as a mural of this size took her nearly a week to complete.

“The first day it rained, I actually painted in the rain, it wasn’t too wet on the actual wall so I could still put some paint on, it was just a little miserable,” she said.

The work was originally scheduled to begin March 20 but was postposed until March 27 because of the continuing wet weather.

She has been painting murals for the last five to six years and said she has been involved in art for several years.

“Making a living, right now, it’s mostly word of mouth, having friends who also paint murals recommend me, I think that’s actually how OakdaleARTS found me, I just travel around and paint murals,” she said of being hired to do the murals and traveling to where the work is.

And while it is somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle, it’s one that suits Ding well.

“I enjoy it, it’s always cool getting to meet new people in new communities and share some art with them,” she explained.

OakdaleARTS Treasurer Cheryl Dillwood, on hand Friday at the mural site, said members of the group took shifts while Ding was working, there to answer questions from passersby and to watch the mural take shape.

“The building owner, she wanted to do something she thought would look nice in the park and on her building,” Dillwood said of first having to work with the owner to prepare the site for painting. “We did some research, asked around and this is a tree swallow, it’s a migrating bird but it stays here in Stanislaus County and the Oakdale area around the rivers and the lakes all year round so it’s a familiar bird and then we also added vegetation, local flora and fauna, oak leaves and acorns so it’s very relevant to Oakdale.”

Dillwood said several members of OakdaleARTS previously met Ding, attending a mural fest in Concord.

“We fell in love with her work because she’s just so good,” Dillwood said.

The goal of the OakdaleARTS organization is to have the murals in town represent the heart of the community, including agriculture, youth, reading, rodeo, sheep and now landscape and nature, through the tree swallow mural.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Dillwood said of bringing so many murals to town. “I’ve been involved with art all my life, I was born in Oakdale so it’s nice to give back to the city and the people are so generous, they donate to all the murals and it’s a pretty good feeling. I’m honored to do something for the city and give back, I know in our group, we all feel the same way.”

Now based in Los Angeles, Ding said she drove to Oakdale and saw plenty of scenery – including rural California – that she had never seen before. And she was pleasantly surprised at how “at home” she felt in Oakdale, as the Cowboy Capital of the World has some of the same features as her Texas home.

Overall, she added, she is pleased with the work and the ability to create in such a public way.

“In general, it’s always nice being outside, you know, when it’s not raining, but I really enjoy the fact that mural artwork is public art, it’s for the community,” Ding said of the attraction of her craft. “It’s not like a piece hanging in a gallery, there’s no barriers to seeing and appreciating something.”

She also – though exhausted by week’s end from spending hours on her feet each day covering the 75-by-20 canvas – was satisfied with the result.

“I love the looseness of it,” Ding pointed out of the mural, “the fact that so many of them (swallows) are in motion and I hope people will like that, too.”