The “Welcome to Indian Lake” mural is officially on display as a gateway to the community.
Representatives from LoCo Art, the Indian Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Logan County Visitors Bureau joined Indian Lake teachers and students for a ribbon cutting recently in downtown Russells Point.
Several students, school officials, community members and parents were there to see the artwork on the side of the Homegrown Yoga building unveiled.
Jennifer Davis from LoCo Art led a short ceremony before the ribbon cutting.
“Students this is about you and the work that you did on this project and allowing you to shine. And wow! What a beautiful contribution you’ve made to your community.”
Indian Lake Middle School Art educator Rebecca Dotson explained that the Logan County Visitors Bureau, LoCo Art and Indian Lake Schools partnered this school year to design and create the mural. With inspiration and guidance from local artist Marilyn Reed, the Indian Lake students worked diligently to get the artwork completed for the summer season.
“This project was great for students to learn about an art profession and to meet a working artist in our community,” Dotson said. It was also a great experience for students to apply what they have learned in art class and math, as well as to work with Marilyn.”
The mural was designed by gifted art students, with junior Heidi Hoffman taking the lead.
“We looked at historical photos from when Indian Lake was more of an amusement park and we based some of our lettering off of that. We just really wanted to incorporate our local history,” Heidi explained.
The group of students started the design process in the fall, but painting began after Easter. Several middle school students helped with the painting alongside Heidi. Even ILMS science teacher Jana Core has helped with some math and painting.
A team from Dawson Construction installed the mural in early June.
Students who worked on the mural were: Heidi Hoffman, Courtney Altstaetter, Joslyn Cummins, Morgan Hill Slaven, Alyssa Powell, Grace Johnson, Emily Sanabria, Sebastian Zook, Titus Kelly, Laila Lynch, Chaz Moore, Riley Rash, Kylee Harford, Karis Martini and Ava Phillips.
They each received special gifts for being involved in the mural project. In addition, Heidi received a matted and framed version of her original design.
As a final touch, Mrs. Dotson included the names of everyone involved in the project on the cattails leaves in the left bottom corner of the mural.