Community Mural Painting - Public Art For the Win

Supporting community arts, one mural at a time

(Completed Mural - July 2023 / author’s photo)

Dating back to when I was a lowly graduate student serving as editor of a literary/arts magazine, I helped organize and set up public art exhibitions, musical recitals, literary readings, and the like. It was one of the most rewarding parts of my work as an editor. Whenever I can, I support public arts. I love when cities adopt art to adorn public spaces in a way that supports and enhances their communities.

When taking my dog for his daily walk, I saw a poster for this Mural Community Paint Day hanging on a fence and signed up to participate. What fun!

You can see the backside of the building in the poster, an unsightly beige with peeling paint. But that would all change with this project.

Participants signed up for an hour for painting in a paint-by-number format. There were four stations set up with cups of paint and brushes. Pick a brush, grab a cup of paint, find your number which was written on the cups and on the walls and paint where those numbers were on the building.

The entire building had been prepped with line drawings and numbers to correspond with the paint that would fill that spot.

After an hour of painting, there was a free tour of these amazing facilities where scientists study fish, and salmon in particular. The challenges are great, but the scientists were upbeat about all they were continuing to learn.

About 350 people signed up to paint, a new batch of every hour. On day 2, they brought in experienced painters to smooth out the lines and put the finishing touches on the mural. There was music, good cheer, snacks, and donuts!

The mural was designed by an 18 year old, Austin Picinich, who just graduated from high school and who will be headed to the University of Washington in the fall. His website is https://www.austinsart.net/. It is his 3rd large-scale mural he designed for the project “Save Our Salmon (SOS) Mural Series.” What an achievement. He partnered with a local arts organization called Urban Artworks, a Washington state based 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to engage youth, artists, and communities in the creation of public art that inspires connections and honors their voices.

Congratulations to Austin and to Urban Artworks and to USGS Western Fisheries Research Center for an outstanding community beautification project and for raising awareness about the need to protect salmon.

Thank you for encouraging and allowing the community to participate with you in helping you to realize your dream and for fostering community spirit and bringing art to the public.

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I’ve written a memoir, My Own Private Waste Land, which I’m in the process of querying for traditional publication. I’m at work on my second memoir as well as many other assorted writing projects.

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