Jon Stommel works collaboratively with Vermont-based artist Travis Czekalski as a duo called ‘Rather Severe’.  Together they create Murals, Illustrations, and Public Art, to inspire their communites and enrich the experience of being in public spaces.  Their works are a conversation with a wide variety of residential and commercial clients, whom they encourage to share visions for an art piece and then work with to realize those visions within their own unique visual language.  In this way the work creates a direct connection between the artists, their clients, and the communities and places that their artworks become a part of.

Rather Severe has participated in many mural festivals including Mural Fest South Salt Lake, Forest for the Trees in Portland, OR, Colorado Crush, the SODO Track Project, RKY MTN Walls, and Clark County Summer of Murals in Vancouver, WA. Rather Severe has also worked on commissioned commercial painting projects and public murals in many other cities including Roanoke VA, Minneapolis, Myrtle Beach, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cleveland, Bellevue OH, Lincoln NE, Atlanta, Denver, among others.