COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — There's something magical about watching an artist fall in love with a place they've never really seen before.
Rhiannan Sibbald had lived in Grand Rapids for over a decade, but she'd never set foot in Dwight Lydell Park until last year. When she finally took that first discovery walk along Mill Creek in late August, gathering inspiration for her latest library mural, she found herself "taken aback by all the beauty" hiding in plain sight.
"I think it's really just noticing the beauty in your backyard," Rhiannan reflects on her artistic mission. "In this modern day and age, I can feel so overwhelmed with information and stories beyond my control, and something that heals me is just going outside and noticing everything we have right at our fingertips."
That philosophy has bloomed into vibrant life on the walls of the Comstock Park library, where Rhiannan's murals now celebrate both the community and the natural world that surrounds it.
Rhiannan's journey to these library walls began in the most unlikely of places — rural Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where a lack of technology forced a young girl to find her own entertainment.
"We didn't have any technology, really, so we were just kind of forced to be creative to keep ourselves occupied," she explains. "I've really been nurturing that forever."
That creative spark eventually led her to Grand Valley State University's fine art program, where she honed her illustration skills. But when graduation approached, Rhiannan made a choice that would define her career: she stayed put.
"I didn't want to move to New York City or LA or anything big like that. I really love West Michigan," she says. "I tried some office work. It wasn't really for me. I wanted to be out interacting with communities and doing physical work and just getting outside, and that's where murals came into play."
What started as dabbling in graphic design has become Rhiannan's full-time calling. For four years now, she's operated what she calls her "studio" — technically just an extra bedroom in her apartment, though she notes with a laugh that "my studio technically moves wherever I paint."
It's a career path that might seem precarious to some, but Rhiannan has found support in an unexpected place: a tight-knit community of fellow mural artists throughout West Michigan.
"There's really no playbook on how to make art full time," she explains. "So we're really relying on each other as an artistic ecosystem. We'll get together for a coffee and share what we know. It's really a beneficial cycle of people just sharing knowledge, and it really makes it possible."
The Comstock Park library project represents just the latest addition to Rhiannan's expanding portfolio across the Grand Rapids area. Her work has become increasingly visible around town, from the colorful ticket booth nestled between Van Andel Arena and Studio Park to the whimsical mural at Chartreuse Sisters Patisserie on Eastern and Wealthy.
One of her most ambitious projects was the 33,000-square-foot activation at the 555 Monroe event lot in 2023, created in partnership with Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. "It's kind of collecting over the years, which is cool," she notes about her growing presence in the local art scene.
The library murals showcase Rhiannan's commitment to celebrating local ecosystems. Her process for the most recent wall began with that transformative walk through Dwight Lydell Park, where she cataloged the native species around her: golden rod, moth mullen, purple echinacea, cup flower, and fleabane, along with the insects and creatures that call the area home.
"That's the beauty of a sketchbook," she says about capturing inspiration. "You can go out and say, 'Oh, I saw this really cool thing,' jot it down really quick, and then marinate on it until the idea is ready to come to fruition."
The project began with a connection through Lions and Rabbits, the local arts organization that linked Rhiannan with the library system. The first mural, completed in summer 2024, featured "a lovely day in Comstock Park" and captured "all the wonderful things about the Comstock Park community." The newest piece serves as an extension of that initial work, diving deeper into the natural world that surrounds the library.
True to her belief in community interaction, Rhiannan didn't just paint for the library — she painted *with* it. Working alongside Lions and Rabbits, she organized a paint party that welcomed kids as young as two years old to help complete portions of the mural.
"When I designed the mural, I was very mindful of creating shapes that kids would be able to paint," she explains. "They can barely hold a brush at that point, so I wanted to make sure that the shapes were large and easy to understand."
It's that kind of thoughtful community engagement that makes Rhiannan's work more than just decoration. In a world where we're constantly bombarded with distant crises and digital overwhelm, her murals serve as gentle reminders to pause, look around, and appreciate the natural beauty that exists right outside our doors.
As library patrons walk past her latest creation, they're not just seeing art — they're seeing an invitation to notice, to appreciate, and to fall in love with the often-overlooked corners of their own community. In Rhiannan's hands, a simple library wall becomes a window into the wild beauty that surrounds us all, if we just take the time to look.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
