A cooperative effort between a local church, the city of Hot Springs and a group of artists has transformed the drab back wall of a parking lot in the 700 block of Central Avenue into a leafy work of art.
A crew of volunteer artists in the past week produced a mural of colorful leaves that Ann Caruso, co-chair of the city's Arts Advisory Committee, says appropriately reflects Hot Springs as the "City of the Arts" and Arkansas as "The Natural State."
Caruso said the mural project began when members of Hot Springs Baptist Church's Mission Hot Springs team contacted Jean Wallace, Hot Springs Parks and Recreation director, about giving something back to the city, particularly downtown Hot Springs.
The committee came up with the idea of a mural, and set the wheels in motion to have the property cleaned. Crews supervised by Denny McPhate, the city's public works director, cleaned back the vegetation from the west retaining wall of the parking lot, where the mural is located, and the wall was power washed, Caruso said.
Members of Hot Springs Baptist Church then applied a water-based primer and a tinted base coat to the wall. The city followed by painting the upper portion of the wall blue, and the lower section a tree-bark color for the base of the mural's design, she said.
The design was created by Gary Simmons. Simmons, who has had his studio in Hot Springs since 1976, recently retired from 22 years with the Henderson State University art department.
"We needed something that was going to be colorful, and appropriate, and something that you could manage with volunteers," Simmons said.
"I designed it so that it would be lively, with big shapes. And that's why the leaf pattern is like it is," he said.
Simmons said the design began as a drawing, which was then transferred to a computer. He then tried various color combinations for the leaves, and the committee chose the color combination they wanted.
He then chalked the pattern on the wall. Because of the threat of rain, though, he had to use a magic marker to redraw it.
He numbered the leaves according to the five or six colors that had been chosen for the leaves, numbering the cans of paint to correspond with the numbers on the leaves.
The painting took place over a two-day period, beginning Monday. It rained Monday night, but Simmons said it did not affect the latex paint that was used, because it dries rather quickly.
Simmons was concerned the color would run due to the rain, "which would have been a nightmare," but the latex combined with the fact "we were virtually in an oven all day," referring to Monday's blistering hot summer temperatures, "really baked it on there."
"It all was fine," he said Tuesday.
The mural will be painted with a vandal-proof clear coat, Simmons said.
"It was a real cooperative effort," Simmons said. The leaves were outlined and a hard black drop shadow was added to provide punch.
"Everybody jumped in and really worked like crazy," he said.
His "art crew" included Richard Stephens, Sheila Rosco, Lori Arnold, JoAnn Mangione, Dale Blackwelder, committee co-chairman, committee members Nan Cameron and Judy Ladd, and Mario Caruso, Ann Caruso said.
Stevie Spargo facilitated the project by requesting the Hot Springs Planning Commission's approval for an outdoor mural at that location, Caruso said.
McPhate and Ralph Lee, the city's property maintenance supervisor, "made this project possible and were patient beyond words," she said.
Local on 07/19/2014