Kid volunteers help restore the mural during an event over Easter weekend. Photo via Facebook.com
The Forest Lane mural is looking especially vibrant these days.
For the past three weeks, Glen Meadows resident Brent Herling and his army of volunteers have been restoring the artwork that W.T. White seniors originally created in the 1970s.
The colorful mural extends along the retaining wall from Midway to Rosser and has become a funky fixture of the neighborhood. About 20 percent of the artwork has been restored, and Herling hopes to have it all finished in a month.
“I want to keep it as close to the original as possible,” he says.
This, from the man who sparked outrage among some W.T. White alumni and neighbors when he painted a cartoon image of Spongebob Squarepants, which didn’t exactly fit the aesthetic. He was only trying to cover up graffiti and, “It was never intended to be permanent,” he told us. He removed Spongebob and expressed interest in helping the newly formed W.T. White alumni group with its restoration efforts (Herling himself is a 1977 graduate).
That was three years ago.
The restoration never materialized. Recently, a member of the Glen Meadows Homeowners Association sent around a proposal to paint the entire retaining wall beige and add bushes. Herling couldn’t let that happen, so with signatures from the majority of homeowners, he got permission to begin restoring the mural.
“I walked into Lowe’s and said, ‘I need a lot of paint,’ ” and bought it with his own money.
Herling has been tracking the progress on Facebook. Volunteers will continue to work on the restoration every Saturday morning until it’s finished.
