Wall of pride

MOSES LAKE — The ball field at the Paul Lauzier Athletic Complex on Central Drive sported some new, vibrant colors Tuesday, when a mural celebrating Moses Lake was unveiled.

“This is yet another example of (Moses Lake City) Council priority No. 3, which is city pride,” Mayor Dustin Swartz said. “This shows an immense amount of city pride, and also pride from our young people, which I love.”

The image covers the back of the dugout facing Central Drive, and shows a young baseball player, a heron with wings spread wide, a Japanese torii gate and the city’s iconic fountain, all with a Moses Lake sunset for a backdrop. The mural was a collaboration between artist Phil Seth and 10 local youth between the ages of 12 and 17, Seth said. The creation took about a week, Seth said Tuesday.

“It started out the first day with the kids and me brainstorming, throwing markers and drawing silly stuff on the wall,” he said. “Then we worked on the background for two days where the kids painted for a good four or five hours each day. Then I painted the next four days to complete it and bring it home.”

Seth planned to return Wednesday to apply a protective coating that would guard the art against both the elements and graffiti, he said.

The mural was covered in plain white paper for the unveiling Tuesday. The 10 artists each grabbed a piece of the paper and tore into it like a Christmas present until the whole mural was visible.

The Moses Lake Museum & Art Center supplied all the materials for the mural, said Superintendent Dollie Boyd. She recruited the artistic helpers herself, starting about Christmas, she said.

“I reached out to the schools, to the Boys and Girls Club, anybody I could think of who knew some artsy kids who might be interested in doing this,” she said.

The city held a competition to select an artist to head up the project, and the winner was Seth, he said. Seth, who is based in Pittsburgh, Penn., travels around the country several times a year creating art like the Moses Lake mural. His daughter Persephone, 13, accompanied him to Moses Lake.

“She is such a trooper,” Seth said. “She helps me paint, cleans the brushes. When the kids were painting, she was mixing the paint and making sure that each kid was using the right color.”

The mural serves a purpose, Boyd added, as public art cuts down on tagging. Locating it at the ball field puts it front and center for the youth baseball players and their families who come from out of town.

“We want people to come and take their selfies here when they come in for tournaments,” Boyd said. “We hope it’s going to become a point of community pride and a local landmark.”

    The mural at the Paul Lauzier Athletic Complex combines a baseball theme with symbols of Moses Lake with one of the city’s vivid sunsets as a backdrop.
  

    From left: Pittsburgh-based artist Phil Seth; Moses Lake Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Doug Coutts; and Moses Lake Museum and Art Center Superintendent Dollie Boyd introduce the mural at Paul Lauzier Athletic Complex Tuesday.
  

    The artists pose in front of the mural they created. From left: Andrew, Landon, Sparrow, Quentin, lead artist Phil Seth, Issac, Kaylee, Owen, Thomas, Alexis and Owen.