“It looks like a breath of nature smack dab in the middle of cement,” Jerri Stanard, founder and executive director of K12 Gallery & TEJAS, said. “It refreshes your spirit.”
The artwork, entitled “Twilight,” is designed by artist Gae Helton and is being produced by the K12 Gallery and TEJAS.
Young artists in Montgomery County Juvenile Court’s HAALO (Helping Adolescents Achieve Long-term Objectives) Program, are assisting the lead mural artists, Chloe Chicarelli and Natalie Weaver.
“We really wanted to capture that kind of twilight when the sky has that transitional phase from dark to light and brings out these kinds of warm colors,” Chicarelli said.
A great blue heron takes flight across the 148-foot span of the mural joined by a kingfisher, pair of swans, an owl, bats and frogs.
The fauna is flanked by a sunrise on the east end of the building and a sunset at the west. “It coincides with the universe,” Stanard said.
A quote, “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see,” from Neil Postman’s book, “The Disappearance of Childhood,” will soon be painted along the top.
The nature-themed mural is the latest addition to the big, colorful embellishments painted throughout downtown in recent years.
“Murals provide a museum on the street for every patron,” Stanard said.
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