The Big Time

The view from Ho-Ho-Kus Borough Clerk Joan Herve’s desk was a bit stark. Outside her office door, near the entrance of the municipal building, was a long, blank wall—a perfect canvas, she thought, for a mural.

When the idea struck, she immediately thought of a whimsical postcard created in 2024 by artist Julia Shea as part of fundraising efforts to relocate the borough’s library. Could Shea, a Ho-Ho-Kus native, majorly scale up the tiny work of art?

The artist was up for the challenge, reworking and recreating the original piece, which features intricate drawings of borough landmarks, into a mural that now provides a warm welcome to visitors to Borough Hall.

“This is my first time working on something of this scale,” Shea says. “It’s been a full-circle moment, creating the postcard and then having the opportunity to turn it into a mural which will be part of Ho-Ho-Kus for years to come.”

A Double Agent

Shea, who now lives in Brooklyn, says growing up in Ho-Ho-Kus, she was always an “art kid.” Drawing was a constant, sometimes even getting her in trouble in class when she’d doodle on papers to keep her “active hands” happy.

Though the path to a career in art wasn’t always clear to her, after graduating from Amherst College in 2021 with a double major in Fine Arts and English, she was hired by Simon & Schuster (specifically, imprints of the agency, Little Simon and Simon Spotlight), designing books for children.

At her job, Shea works with artists to make her team’s vision for everything from interactive board books to chapter books come to life. As an artist, it was always her dream to be on the other side of the negotiations, creating art for publishers.

In January, Shea was signed to The Cat Agency Inc. for her freelance illustration work—a big step towards making her dream a reality. She has ambitions to illustrate graphic novels—a genre she loves—or young adult novels and their covers.

“I call myself a double agent,” Shea says of now being on both sides of the business. “It’s not uncommon for people in the children’s book world to move through different roles and capacities. I love the agency I’m represented by. I’ve worked with them on the other side of the table and have been a fan for a long time. I’m just so thrilled to join the bunch.”

Jersey Roots

After Herve approached Shea about the possibility of doing a mural, she got to work on a proposal, which was presented to the Mayor and Council and approved.

Shea took a week’s vacation from work to complete the mural. It was the first time in a long while that she spent significant time in Ho-Ho-Kus (her parents had relocated to coastal Georgia), and she relished being back.

She has deep Jersey roots—both of her parents grew up in the area and were high school sweethearts at Northern Highlands Regional High School, which Shea also attended. Her father, Kevin, is a former Ho-Ho-Kus councilman.

The artist says that, while growing up, the small, close-knit nature of Ho-Ho-Kus could feel a bit claustrophobic at times; however, with time and distance, she has come to truly appreciate the warmth of the community.

“I love this town. This is where I grew up, and it’s been really sweet being back,” she says. “I think a lot of things about Ho-Ho-Kus I still experience through the eyes of a child. A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things have stayed the same, and it’s been really nice to be back.”

Shea says one thing she always loved about Ho-Ho-Kus and misses about living in New York City is its leafy tree cover, providing shade in the hot summer months. It’s featured in the postcard and the mural.

One change from the postcard is that Worth-Pinkham Memorial Library will not be included in the mural, since the town plans to relocate it and wants the mural to remain relevant long term. Other landmarks, like the Hermitage, the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn, the school, downtown, and the bridge leading to the train station, remain, along with some deer and imaginary houses, loosely based on homes along Franklin Turnpike.

For just over a week, Shea painted for about eight hours a day. She says she originally planned to use a projector to help get the scale right, but the hallway was too narrow for that method to work.

Instead, she created 12-by-12-inch grids on the wall and over her sketch, drawing the piece square by square until the entire lined image was on the wall. She then painted all the flat colors before adding details.

The completed mural is a showstopper and conversation piece for visitors to Borough Hall.

“It’s still a surreal experience to be doing this professionally,” Shea says. “I’m excited and honored when I think about the longevity of this mural.”

For more about Shea, visit her Instagram page @jshea_art.

Photographs by Joe Nolan and courtesy of Julia Shea

Sarah Nolan is a writer with a passion for telling people’s stories. A Ho-Ho-Kus native, she believes in the power of local journalism to connect and inform residents and foster a sense of community.