Mural magic: Contest-winning design painted on city’s show wagon

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By Sam Elliott

At eight feet tall by 32 feet wide, the new mural on the back of the City of Lawrence Parks Dept.’s portable show wagon is by far the largest work of art Lecia Floyd has designed and helped execute.

Initially created in Photoshop, Floyd’s design was the winner of a Partnerships for Lawrence contest after members of the public cast votes in the form of dollar bills at a Toast the Arts event April 28 at the Theater at the Fort.

“It’s so cool that the community liked it enough to want to have it as a permanent part of the community,” Floyd said. “It’s so awesome.”

Community volunteers with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s Better Together Day and from ProAct Indy plus fellow artists came out May 13 to transfer Floyd’s design from digital file to giant work of art, painting the design on the back of the portable show wagon, which will be seen at area public events this summer including Fridays at the Fort and the Fourth of July Festival.

“We’ll also use it at the Children’s Theater Festival that will be here at the Theater at the Fort July 9 and 10, too,” Partnerships for Lawrence executive director Judy Byron said.

The traveling art on the show wagon is the third mural Partnerships for Lawrence has commissioned, joining a pair on Franklin Road that were also painted by community volunteers.

“This is the third and we hope to do more,” Byron said. “It’s just a really fun thing to get the community together, it’s community service yet it’s really fun, it’s artsy and people will enjoy it. For those who have never painted a mural before, and even those who have, there’s a lot of pride when you drive by in and can say, ‘I painted that letter E and that heart,’ or ‘Hey my friend painted those music notes.’”

Mural design submissions were asked to answer the question, “What does the Lawrence community look like to you?” For Floyd, her common themes included peace, love and music.

“The first part I did was the big ‘I love you’ hand sign in the middle and kind of built the word love off of it,” she said. “For me, working and living in Lawrence, I see it as a lot of love from the different stories you hear about police officers helping people, the things I see at my kids’ school and it’s just a very supportive community. Something I tell everybody is sometimes how Lawrence is depicted is not really representative of how it truly is. I see it as a loving place.

“I’m huge into music,” she added. “I love music and I love the arts. This is going to be a cultural arts destination, so I wanted to bring that in with the theater masks and music notes and microphone and things like that. Then I’ve got the peace signs and hearts for the peace and love that I see throughout the community — and bright colors. I love bright colors.”

Floyd’s artistic background is based in the performing arts, and she spent nine seasons in the Indiana Wind Symphony.

“I am a clarinet saxophone player, but I love the visual arts as well,” she said. “My degree is actually in media arts and science and that’s kind of where I first got into the visual arts and things.

This is what I do for fun, creating things and logos and stuff like that for people. This was a fun little project outside of my normal day-to-day things.”

Floyd’s day-to-day things also include working part time as the Partnerships for Lawrence office manager inside the Theater at the Fort.

“I’ve been here about two months. I’m still learning about the theater and Partnerships for Lawrence, but I love it,” she said. “When I first interviewed and realized I was going to work inside a theater everyday, I thought, ‘This is fantastic.’ It’s so great because my first love was music and things like that, so to be able to be here and see other artists it’s really awesome for me.”

Meet Lecia Floyd

  • Indianapolis native
  • Lawrence resident for three years
  • Education: North Central High School, Indiana University
  • Family: Husband Nate, son Jermaine and daughter Jayla — “My son kind of took after me with a love for the arts and he’s in show choir and things like that,” Lecia said. “My daughter is a gymnast, so a little different kind of art form.”

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