A new mural unveiled earlier this month at the West Hill Skate Park encourages boarders, bladers and bikers to \u201cLook Forward To Their Future,\u201d offering inspiration at each of the three levels in the park\u2019s bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do something special,\u201d said artist Lisa H. Park, 18, whose design won a mural contest hosted by the city.<\/p>\n
Park, a 2009 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate, said she heard about the contest from her art teacher and decided to enter her design, a colorful, thee-tiered image urging \u201cserenity,\u201d \u201cpassion,\u201d and \u201cadventure,\u201d each represented by different colors surrounding an eyeball.<\/p>\n
Park said each of the park\u2019s three connected bowls represents a different element, with colors and ideas to match the difficulty and skill necessary to drop in to each section.<\/p>\n
In the shallowest section of the park, the imagery is a cool blue, filled with water to create a more relaxing feel, Park said.<\/p>\n
The next section is a fiery mix of oranges and purples, creating a \u201ccrazy mood\u201d with \u201chot colors\u201d to represent a new level of skating skill.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire is passion,\u201d Park said of the middle section.<\/p>\n
In the deepest, steepest section of the park\u2019s course, the image switches to one of abstract, stylized mountains, surrounding the eye with greens, yellows and blues, as well as the gray part of the bowl, which park said she used to create a more rocky look.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it portrays adventures,\u201d the artist said of that section.<\/p>\n
Park said she enjoys drawing and enjoyed her art classes in school, but had never attempted anything on the scale of the West Hill mural.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a little bit hard, but it was fun at the same time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Park was one of two finalists for the mural, which was sponsored by the Kent Parks, Recreation and Community Services department. The other finalist was Rico Torres.<\/p>\n
According to Jeff Watling, director of Parks and Recreation, the city is hoping the mural will cut down on graffiti and \u201ctagging\u201d at the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cSkate parks tend to attract graffiti,\u201d Watling said.<\/p>\n
Watling said the plan is to host a new contest and repaint the mural every year.<\/p>\n
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the West Hill Skate Park, one of three skate parks within the city, and part of a conscious effort by the city to reduce graffiti.<\/p>\n
A new street light was also installed at the park earlier this year and the hope is that the mural will be a deterrent to taggers, something that has proven the case around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cMurals tend to reduce tagging and graffiti,\u201d Watling said. \u201cWe hope that\u2019s the case with this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watling said the murals also help to create depth perception for the skaters, breaking up the plain, gray of the pool bottom.<\/p>\n
Watling said adding the murals also help create a sense of ownership among the skaters and other kids in the neighborhood and they hope to expand the program to the city\u2019s other parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d love to emulate this downtown,\u201d Watling added.<\/p>\n
Preparations for the mural, as well as the actual painting of the park, were done by the Thomas Jefferson Key Club (of which Park was a member) and the Kent Police Department Youth Group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really fun time,\u201d Park said of painting the mural. \u201cIt was a cool experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new mural unveiled earlier this month at the West Hill Skate Park encourages boarders, bladers and bikers to \u201cLook Forward To Their Future,\u201d offering inspiration at each of the three levels in the park\u2019s bowl. \u201cI wanted to do something special,\u201d said artist Lisa H. Park, 18, whose design won a mural contest hosted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":3723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3722"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}