On Saturday, June 17th, the CSX mural location along Camp Street played host to a Community Creation event. Artists of all ages and abilities were able to show up and paint a portion of the mural, with area artist Anita Gordon on-hand to provide guidance. Attendees even walked away with a paintbrush, commemorating the memory making event.
“I just like art,” said Mason Minix, who just wrapped up his 5th grade year at Harney Elementary School. “And it’s our school.”
“We saw it on social media first,” said parent Ricky Downs. “The biggest thing is both my boys are 5th graders and going into 6th grade. They went to Harney their entire school year, and when they saw the mural where their school was going to be on it, they wanted to come paint that.”
“It’s my favorite part of public art,” said Artist Anita Gordon. “Not just allowing the public to see it, but to be part of it as well. It’s more memorable for them to have artwork that they were apart of, and we actually have brushes that they can take home with them, so they can remember that. So even when they aren’t at the site, they can remember and ‘show off’ that they were part of this history.”
“This is such a big surface,” added Gordon. “It really allows the artists in the are who haven’t been out and about showing off their talents, to come out from behind the scenes and be willing to put forth their work as well. I have had a lot of artists in the area that came up and said they were also interested in creating artwork and doing plein air painting, or participating in art things. Once they see opportunities like this, they are more encouraged to bring out their talent and share that.”
“They didn’t want to leave. They wanted to paint the whole mural,” added Downs. “The main thing is bonding time with them, and then you turn it into a community event that everyone is going to drive by and see.”
“I think it was fun,” added Minix. “And since it’s going to be there for a while, and if the paint stays long enough, I could tell my kids, ‘Hey, I painted that.’”
The Camp Street mural is slated to be complete this summer.
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