Church mural a long-awaited project

Ruby Hembolt creates mural at St. Martin's

MOSES LAKE — Ruby Helmbolt's latest mural is something she likens to a quest.

The 7-by-15-foot painting of Jesus surrounded by children is a scene Helmbolt has wanted to create for quite some time.

"You have to teach children when they're small the love of Jesus because it's a little difficult when they grow up without a basis for Christianity," Helmbolt said.

This summer she finally got her chance to paint the mural on a wall at St. Martin's Episcopal Church where she has been a member for more than a decade.

The project first took shape one day while standing in the social room at church.

It was not a very colorful room, Helmbolt said.

That's when a fellow church member suggested she paint a mural.

Every day from May until September, when the mural was complete, Helmbolt came from 3 to 6 p.m. to paint.

Week after week, church elders and teenagers would inquire as to when the painting would come to completion.

Finally, one Sunday Helmbolt walked up to the blessing bank at church where members put in a dollar for every blessing and said "it's done."

Some of the children in the mural are Helmbolt's own children and one is a young man who attends church at St. Martin's.

Painting has been a passion of Helmbolt's since she was a young child.

Having grown up in the Depression, she says each of her sisters, including herself, have one thing in particular they always keep on hand.

"I always have lots of drawing material," Helmbolt said.

For the other sisters keeping plenty of food and shoes on hand is important.

Besides murals, Helmbolt has painted backdrops for musicals as well as backdrops for Miss Moses Lake.

"I call myself a wash-away artist because they always wash the backdrops," Helmbolt said with a laugh.

She has also drawn cartoon books about humorous experiences she's had working as a nurse or those her late husband had when he worked as a pharmacist.

When asked what sparked her interest in art, Helmbolt isn't for sure, but recalls drawing as a young child and being conscience that her childlike representations were not true to real life.

"I knew in my mind they were baby drawings, I knew they weren't right," she said.

As for a next project, Helmbolt said she is going to concentrate on pictures for Christmas presents; a John Deere tractor for her great-nephew and a painting of the Madonna for her granddaughter.