Lya Yang

Amur Tiger

This mural maquette is designed and painted for the Hogle Zoo Mural Project application. Design elements include foliage from native trees, cultural depictions of tiger drawings, segments of sky and hand drawn stars, and red patterns abstracted from tigers’ stripes.

Native Plants: Siberian Cedar (bottom left), Manchurian Walnut (top right), Mongolian Oak (bottom right). Research has shown these trees to be most beneficial for tigers’ habitats; all provide food for wild boars, which are the main prey for Amur tigers. Each foliage is depicted in a different season, with Cedar branch in bloom for spring, green Walnuts for summer, bronze Oak leaves for autumn, and the Amur tiger basking in snow, center, for winter.

Tigers in Art: I could not resist slipping in a personal cultural connection to this mural - in Northeastern China, where my family is from, cloth tigers are a traditional folk toy, created from silk and stuffed with cotton (top left). They are often handmade (my grandmother made me several when she was alive) and given to children as symbols of protection. In various corners are also small, rough drawings of fierce (and cute) tigers. Tigers are symbols of courage and ferocity across many cultures around the world, and are often depicted in art as snarling, powerful, and intimidating. For this mural, I wanted to express something more hopeful and positive for the real animals who are hunted and endangered, but have referenced the fearsomeness through drawings in a playful way.

Earning Your Stripes: Red patterns are abstracted from tiger stripes, which are as unique as human fingerprints. If this mural idea is selected, I think it would be nice to use Sasha and Nikolai’s patterns as a tribute to the residents of the zoo.

Keeping Hope Alive: While conservation efforts have kept the wild population stable in recent years, deforestation and habitat fragmentation are serious threats, and Amur Tigers remain classified as an endangered species. Fragments of sky represent a dream for freedom in the natural world for the tigers. Hand drawn stars also represent wishes, from a place of child-like wonder. While the risk of extinction for such a beautiful creature is a frightening and dire thing to contend with, all of us must continue believing in the magic of the natural world in order to enact change for a better future.

Other Mural Designs

VOA Youth Resource Center, 2017

As part of Kim Martinez’s special topics course at the University of Utah, I designed a mural for the youth resource center in collaboration with the residents. My design was selected through general vote, and our class executed the final mural with the help of various youth on a drop-in basis.

The theme is finding hope and light in darkness, and remembering that dawn will always follow night.

Urban energy; hopeful, dynamic, youthful energy

Music - as an escape, solace, visualized as rhythm & color

Time - between dusk & dawn: a safe haven to spend the night

MLK quote as inspiration & title

Dreams, potential, a better future represented by fragments of sky, geode crystals, luminous ripples

Luna Coffee and Crystals, 2025 (waiting for funding for onsite installation)

This mural design was created in collaboration with artist and friend Erica Sun-Jursic. We approached Luna Coffee to design a mural for their new business, which was opened in 2024 and is run by three sisters. The design honors them with three large sun circles.

Other design elements include a Luna Moth set against an Arabica coffee plant with coffee berries, phases of the moon, and various plants with symbolism aligned with the owners’ ideals and intentions for their space.

IndieGo Coffee, TBA

This mural design is still in the process of approval. IndieGo Coffee is another a local business, and the owner is Indian American, with strong ties to Utah. The design incorporates our hallmark mountain range, coffee mug rings to represent a place for conversation and gathering, a glowing sun around the entrance, patterns inspired by traditional Indian henna as a subtle homage to the owner’s heritage, and the foliage and flowers of the indigo plant, from which the business draws its name.

Although I have spent more of my time and efforts of the past few years in other mediums, public art, and especially mural art, is something I am passionate about, and a direction I am determined to move my art career towards.

Please feel free to browse my website for samples of other projects I have worked on. While I do not have as much experience in completed murals yet, I do have experience with large scale, public art installation projects, and I am confident in my painting skills. Thank you for your consideration!