November 25, 2004

Almaden artist transforms linen store into a tropical Trader Joe’s oasis

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer 

It’s one of those career-defining moments, when you step back to get a look at the “big” picture and suddenly it hits you. You are actually getting paid to do something you love—like a kid getting paid to eat candy all day long.

Pam Mossing, a former graphic designer simply needed to slow down long enough to notice her good fortune, while putting the finishing touches on a coconut palm tree, surrounded by orchids swaying over a tropical waterfall.

It’s just one of the many murals she painted over a 10-day period that transformed a former linen warehouse into the tropical Trader Joe’s oasis—turning passion into pigment, class project into a profitable career. 

The past 15 years of Mossing’s life have been a whirlwind of cross continent journeys, globetrotting from one country to another, following her husband Chris from one high-tech company to the next. It’s the price of admission in a fast-paced, booming economy—a far cry from her humble birthplace in Ohio. The whirlwind of passports and temporary residencies planted the young couple in Germany, where she gave birth to their first child, a girl. 

While on maternity leave, Mossing’s husband accepted a job in England. Shortly afterward, they welcomed their second daughter into the world. Seven years later, after 12 years abroad, they returned to the states and settled in Almaden. 

With her daughters at Leland and Bret Harte, she is lovingly referred to as the resident go to gal when something needed to be painted anywhere, on anything. 

I did anything artistic,” she admitted. “I’d do their signs or walls in their rooms. Then the librarian asked me to do murals in the library, including Alice in Wonderland. I would do those on paper and staple them to the wall. That way, the theme could change every year.” 

Two years ago, Mossing served on the decorating committee for Bret Hart, as her daughter prepared to graduate. The large sea life mural she painted in the cafeteria transformed the dance into a day at the beach. 

Around the same time, she befriended fellow volunteer and Bret Hart parent Dave Adams while painting a mural for one of the classes. He just happened to be the manager as the Sunnyvale Trader Joe’s location. Never did she imagine that painting chalkboard signs would lead to life sized renderings. She was hired to paint her first mural at the Los Gatos location, followed with the 10-day Almaden gig before heading over the hill to start on the Santa Cruz store, which will open Dec. 10.  

“I think we might do a surfing or boardwalk theme,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” 
Mossing also paints on a more traditional scale, and specializes in watercolor house and pet portraits. 

“I started doing the house portraits a couple of years ago for extra money,” she said. “Now, I’m going to try to pursue this for even more.” 

On the eve of the highly anticipated grand opening last month, Mossing described a seaplane towing a “thank you for shopping with us” banner that she still needed to paint over the exit by day’s end, while exhibiting enviable calm under pressure, given the fact that she hadn’t even started it yet. 

“I haven’t done this since college,” she admitted. “This might be my first all-nighter. It’s funny you never know when to stop, either. You keep looking at it and say is it finished yet? Well, I could add this, I could add that. Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough already.” 

As she strokes her way from one store to the next, Mossing, in a very short time has left her indelible brushstroke everywhere she’s been and her murals are arguably becoming synonymous with Silicon Valley and the trendy

Trader Joe’s  
Mossing also paints on a more transportable medium, specializing in watercolor house and pet portraits. With a new item on her menu, business should be brisk this year. 

“As a graphic artist, I’ve always done everything on a small scale,” she said. “This is a real challenge. And I’m on ladders and scaffolding all day, which I never thought I’d do. Sometimes I just wish I was 20-years younger and doing this.”  

Although relatively new to this type of work, Pam Mossing knows that this is what she was meant to do and plans to continue to pursue her dream. In addition to the mural in her own home, She recently completed a Dora the Explorer mural for a friend’s daughter and is gearing up to paint a Care Bears theme in the other daughter’s room. So far, they are the only other two home murals and they certainly won’t be the last, if she has anything to say about it.  

“I knew if I ever went back to work it would have to be something I liked doing,” she said. “Or I would be the most miserable mother in the evenings.” 

The scenario is much like the time-honored cliché, Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life. She’ll probably never work again.