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City gets splash of color on Orange Avenue

Nick Blank
Posted 1/23/19

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City gets splash of color on Orange Avenue


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Anything is better than beige. Drivers on Orange Avenue honk as they notice a nearly complete 40-foot mural that details 52 flora and fauna unique to Florida.

The painters work in shifts to create “Cove in Bloom” on the side of the building at 404 Walnut St. The bright pinks of a Flamingo and Queen’s Wreath flower jump out first.

Muralist Sophia Dentiste designed “Cove in Bloom.” She tells one of the painters to use more bright orange on an unfinished flower to make it pop. Dentiste said the mural would function as a scavenger hunt for children to find the plants and animals, such as opossums, iguanas and butterflies.

Dentiste talked about the mural concept with City Council Member Van Royal about painting a 40-foot stretch of wall on a building he owns. In making her pitch, she mentioned a mural she recently painted for BASCA, Building Abilities of Special Children & Adults. She received City Council approval on Dec. 4.

The goal of the mural is to raise $10,000 for Mercy Support Services and the Art Guild of Orange Park, whose members are doing the painting. Mercy Support Services provides aid and counseling to families in need and the art guild’s goal is to promote art in Northeast Florida, Dentiste said.

“The two organizations offer hope in different ways,” said Dentiste, who works for Mercy Support Services. “The Art Guild by reminding people the beauty that’s right here in our county, but for Mercy it’s to bring hope to the hopeless.”

While murals beautify the town, they also provide joy, she said. On a personal level, Dentiste said art is a coping mechanism for grief.

“When you’re hurting or in a dark place, people focus on the pretty or the beautiful,” Dentiste said. “These things are beautiful if you stop to notice them.”

Beth Haizlip, of the Art Guild of Orange Park, said the mural will likely be finished next week. A table, and the artists, are covered in paint.

“We did the drawing on chalk first, then we outlined everything in black so people could just fill it in,” Haizlip said.

Haizlip said the Guild heard the renovated Clay Theatre would have an art deco style, so they tried to keep the mural in line with that aesthetic.

“We feel like it would be good to kind of do what they're doing,” Haizlip said. “Everyone has been tooting their horns or saying they love it. It really keeps your spirits up. Green Cove is old and needs an uplift. (The mural) is bright, it’s colorful, it’s just so exciting.”

The mural is the first in the city’s mural program.

Dentiste started a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising the $10,000 for the Art Guild of Orange Park and Mercy Support Services at www.gofundme.com/6fwtr-cove-in-bloom-mural-project.