Youth, pro artists make mural to beautify Wasilla

WASILLA — A partnership between the homeless youth agency MY House and the City of Wasilla has resulted in a public art project designed to keep illegal lines off the walls.

A couple weeks ago, MY House clients River Flowers and Sean Fenner, along with board member Holly Gittlein and fellow professional artist Ryan Romer, started spray painting a roughly 100-foot long mural on the wall along the tunnel beneath the Parks Highway at Wasilla Lake’s Newcomb Park.

Flowers said the opportunity to work on the mural was something of a dream come true.

“I’ve lived here all my life and I see so many abandoned and empty buildings … so when we’d drive around town I would always tell my mom, ‘I wish I could paint that,’” she said while sewing a piece of wearable art at MY House’s Steamdriven Boutique recently.

Fenner, who came up with the general design for the mural, said he’s been “willing and ready to learn about art” of all kinds since he started drawing a few years ago, and has enjoyed “trying something new” with spray paint.

Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle said the idea of painting the Newcomb Park wall came out of a discussion with MY House Executive Director Michelle Overstreet regarding the city’s graffiti problem earlier this summer.

“I said, ‘I’ll buy the paint and you guys can do it,’” he said.

The mural, still in progress, can be seen from the road going south, but what passersby might not see after it’s finished is the protective coating designed to prevent any future graffiti artists from painting over the top of it.

More than the physical protection of the mural, though, Cottle said he hopes the project as a whole will garner more respect for public property among city residents.

“I hope the message gets out in the community that people from MY House did it … that normal people did it — not the government, not the establishment — so they’ll leave it alone,” he said.

Cottle and Overstreet acknowledged that the mural is also a source of pride for the budding young artists, who might not get such an opportunity anywhere else.

“If you’re trying to be an artist, the big challenge is getting your stuff out there,” Overstreet said. “For them to get that (mural) out there at a young age is just awesome.”

Gittlein, who’s completed many public art projects over the years, said she’s enjoyed working with and advising the young artists thus far.

“They’re just sponges and … so excited,” she said.

Burchell High School student Andrea Warren has also contributed to the mural, and other community members are expected to work on it as the project develops.

Cottle said the city also plans to install a new lighting system and address a water leakage issue in the Newcomb Park tunnel in the coming weeks.

Other city projects

Cottle said there are more efforts being made to beautify the city of Wasilla with the help of service organizations and nonprofits that go beyond the anti-graffiti mural.

The Wasilla Sunrise Rotary Club, for example, installed new playground equipment at Newcomb Park a couple years ago, and North Star Terminal and North Star Equipment Services sponsored the dog park established at Lake Lucille campground earlier this year. Boy Scout Troop 300 has also contributed to various city projects over the years, Cottle said.

“That’s what’s kinda neat, we’ve got service organizations stepping forward and saying, ‘we’ll help on (the labor) side, this’ll be our project,’” he said. “It saves us money and it helps the city form another partnership.”

Cottle said the city has two new parks in the works, one of which is expected to open on Cottonwood Creek near Wasilla Lake Church of the Nazarene in mid-August. The other will likely be developed next year behind the Wasilla Alaska Club, thanks to a family’s recent donation of land.

For more information on City of Wasilla projects, visitwww.cityofwasilla.com or call 373-9050.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.