Seymour High School art teacher Laurie Martin has painted interactive murals on buildings at Shields and Gaiser parks in Seymour the past three years.
She and her family volunteered their time to bring some color to previously blank canvases.
Earlier this summer, the Indiana Arts Commission announced the Seymour Parks and Recreation Department would receive a $3,400 grant through the Arts Project Support grant program.
Parks Director Stacy Findley said the grant would pay for a mural to be painted on the east-facing exterior wall of the Seymour Community Center, 107 S. Chestnut St., in the downtown, and the theme of the mural would be organic art.
Martin was commissioned to paint the mural, but she requested her payment be donated to the SHS Art Club to benefit her students.
On Sept. 29 during a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Findley presented a $1,000 check to Martin for the club. Martin said it will be used for supplies for students to use during the after-school club meetings, which are from 3:30 to 5 p.m. every other week.
This is the third year for the club, and Martin said after only having a couple of students the first year, the club has averaged between 10 and 15 last year and this year.
“A lot of kids don’t have time in their schedule to have art classes, so they can come in and try out new things that they haven’t been able to do before,” Martin said. “Some students have had art maybe in middle school, but they can’t fit art now or they like art and just want to try out. Maybe they are in drawing, but they really want to have ceramics, so they can try out ceramics with me.”
She said the club gives them freedom to create art and hang out with like-minded people.
“It’s an independent time where they can just create,” she said. “There’s really not a set thing they have to do. They just get to be free to create what they want.”
When Findley started in her position in 2020, the department began introducing public art into the parks.
Martin painted an elephant, a giraffe and a butterfly on the building at Shields Park that year. The second year, she painted on the building at Gaiser Park. Then last year, she added a turtle and a hummingbird to the building at Shields Park. Her family helped with those projects.
The only other public painting she has done is when her students painted downtown windows during the holidays in 2020 and when they painted a mural on the outside of Itsa Unique-a Hand Made Shop in 2022.
With the community center mural, Martin’s students helped with the description, and she and her family, including husband Darrell Martin and daughters Katie Clancy, Lillie Martin and Emma Martin, assisted with painting.
“This time, it really helped to have the iPad, take a picture of it and then draw it on there,” Martin said. “That was the first time I’ve done it that way, but it really made everything go so much faster. Before, I really did just draw it on with chalk and kind of winged it, but the process took a lot longer.”
The remainder of the grant funding went toward Alan Dunham taking care of the building restoration and base coat, making way for Martin and her family to go to work.
The flowers painted on the building include daylilies, roses, trumpet flowers, clematis, petunias, creeping Jenny, bluebells and hostas.
Looking at the completed mural, Martin said it’s neat to see other people enjoy it. Darrell said one of his wife’s students took their senior pictures in front of the mural.
“That is really nice, and just having people notice it from a distance, I just think it’s interesting to get a bigger perspective of what other people think about it,” Martin said. “I just started teaching art a little bit ago. I was a stay-at-home mom and then a preschool teacher and then I taught science. It’s nice to get to do what you love and people recognize it. I am proud of it. I really like it.”
During the ribbon cutting, Findley thanked Martin and her family for their work.
“This lovely work of art was made possible in part by the Columbus Area Arts Council and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts,” Findley said. “We have accommodations for the visually impaired on our website. We’re working on getting the signage.”
Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson also offered his thanks.
“Laurie and family, thank you not just here but all over town,” he said. “We are more colorful because of your work over the last couple of years.”