It was as if she won a second time.

In 2011, then Brighton High sophomore Amber Gustaveson entered a school contest to design a ferocious Bengal. She won, and then months later, former Brighton art teacher Adam Fernandez projected and painted her design on both sides of the gymnasium.

“It’s a front-facing tiger with his claws out and bared,” she said. “When opponents faced the wall, they saw my ferocious Bengal glaring at them. He was crouched down, showing his toughness, ready to pounce.”

With the rebuild of Brighton, her tiger went down in rumble.

Gustaveson hoped it would come back with the new school, but when it didn’t, she thought, “that was the end of it.” 

Now, a few years later, came the re-emergence of her ferocious Bengal.

It came about when Cottonwood Heights Arts Council member Laura Garcia reached out to Brighton High asking if they would like to participate in the arts council’s newest activity, decorating electrical boxes. Garcia talked with Brighton High Legacy Committee Chairman Jerry Christensen, who reached out to alumni to participate.

Christensen knew Gustaveson had drawn the original Bengal on the gym wall from years of helping coach the wrestling team. He had even photographed it as the demolition took place.

“I took a financial literacy class from him,” Gustaveson said. “He told me we had the opportunity to design some electrical box wraps, and would I be interested? I met with them and went over what they needed. At that point, there were a couple of boxes unspoken for, including a big one, so I said, I’d like the big one, which is by Brighton’s tennis courts and playing fields.”

Knowing she had five designs to cover the box, she tweaked her digital version of her ferocious Bengal and added the words, “Welcome to the Jungle.” Then, in Adobe Illustrator, she designed two more Bengals and created a geometric jungle for the other sides.

“One Bengal is walking to the left and the other is pouncing to the right. Then, I added words that lined with positive sports’ attributes, ‘fast, fierce and ‘fervent,’ to the Bengal facing the tennis courts. We now have a family of Bengals,” she said. “As I worked on each side of the box individually, I made sure my canvases were the exact size of each side of the box. From there, I submitted the digital files to Laura and to the company that makes the wrap.”

Garcia worked with Schmidt Graphics to produce the wraps.

“They’re vinyl, the same material that they do car wraps. It was interesting to watch them install them, because they use heat guns to shrink it and get around all the weird little curves and bumps on the boxes,” she said.

The idea for the wraps started years ago, Garcia said.

Brighton High alum Amber Gustaveson, whose “ferocious Bengal” won the school competition and was painted in the school gym in 2011, was excited when she was asked to create a wrap for Cottonwood Heights electrical boxes near Brighton High’s tennis courts; she incorporated her “ferocious Bengal” into the design. (Photo courtesy of Amber Gustaveson)

 “We saw them pop up in other communities when we were traveling and as I talked with other councilmembers and staff who work with the arts council, we all said how cool they were and how we would love to do this,” she said. “Then a member of the parks, trails and open spaces committee approached us about doing it, so we got in touch with someone in Holladay who let us know how they did it and that started the ball rolling. Every city takes a different approach, but we wanted to make sure our boxes were things related to Cottonwood Heights or artists who have a connection to the city.”

After getting approval from Rocky Mountain Power, Garcia said the eight-member arts council approached artists.

“Everyone we asked was thrilled and wanted to do it,” she said. 

With help from Zoo, Arts & Parks program and Utah Division of Arts & Museums, the first eight boxes were funded. Each box features original artwork which the public can view as they walk or drive city streets.

The artwork is diverse. Bold, black and white geometric animal abstracts by Gailon Justus contrast with the swirling bicyclist heading to the mountains painted by Savannah Cottam and the vibrant watercolor hues of an octopus with the city logo in the wrap by Jeff Anderson.

Some wraps highlight Cottonwood Heights, such as the geometric mountains by Brekke Sjoblom and the mountain lake and sky landscape by Laura Williams. There is local nature photography by Kylie Pregill and photos of Brighton High by Christensen. 

In addition to Gustaveson, Christensen, Cottam and Pregill are Brighton graduates.

“We knew we wanted to work with artists who have ties to the community and who have different styles,” Garcia said. “We let the artists pick their locations of electrical boxes we had available because it may mean something to them, or they may have felt they wanted to create something special for that space.”

She said some electrical boxes, such as Cottam’s, was surrounded by weeds. After talking to the owner of the lot, Garcia received permission to re-landscape it. With the help of Christensen, they worked with Cottonwood Heights’ 9/11 National Day of Service committee who “volunteered their time to clear out all the weeds and add new gravel and made it stand out. It was such a huge improvement in that area.”

In the spring, there will be more electrical boxes available to artists with ties to the community, Garcia said.

“We’ll pick some boxes that are relevant to our community, like schools, parks and gathering places, and hope to find artists that are relevant to those places. We’ve talked about including the schools next time as well as in the parks,” she said. “The response has been very positive. People love it. It’s been really satisfying.”

Garcia and other volunteer arts council members also coordinate the Cottonwood Heights musical, Artists of the Month, have art activities at events such as Light the Heights in November and supported the October’s Hallow-Ink guest artist, who gave daily online pen and ink lessons. They also will be supporting a free Dec. 6 Eclipse 6 concert, art activities to tie into Chinese New Year and a February paint night.