Plain gray concrete covered with crudely drawn images, profanity and derogatory words has been replaced with bright, colorful and well-crafted graffiti, turning Lawrence Skatepark into a large, open-air, interactive art gallery.

It was a community effort with the bulk of the painting taking place during a Sept. 8 celebration — a bright, sunny day with a hint of fall in the air. Skaters, kids, parents, military veterans and public officials gathered to add their own flourishes as Indianapolis-based graffiti artists and muralists made their marks on larger sections.

If everything goes as planned, the new artwork at Lawrence Skatepark, located inside Community Park off Franklin Road, will discourage vandals from again turning the park into an eyesore.

Casper Jones, a longtime skateboarder who lives near the park, led the effort to clean it up — inspired after he found some derogatory words painted on the concrete. He said he was happy to see the community come together in a positive way and make the park welcoming to everyone.

“I stopped by the park last night to check it out,” he said, noting that one graffiti artist already had put up his piece. “I was jumping around like a kid on Christmas.”

Jones said he hopes other cities facing graffiti problems consider this project as an example of how to address it, “because obviously this is working.”

Lawrence Mayor Deb Whitfield was among the people helping to paint the city seal at the center of the skatepark. She said it’s exciting to see the project bring people together.

“I talk about inclusivity in Lawrence and this gives us an opportunity for (skating) culture to come out and feel part of the City of Lawrence,” she said.

Astro, who preferred to go by his graffiti artist name only, was working on one section and said he was happy for the opportunity to do something positive for the community. His piece was a traditional graffiti style with stylized block letters and vibrant colors.

“It’s more of a visual representation of — I was here and I contributed to this,” he said.

Derien was working on another section of the park and said he’s been “writing” — making graffiti art — since he was 15 or 16 years old.

“I’m 35 now. I don’t write as much, very seldom, really, do I write illegally,” he said. “I’ve got a wife, two kids. I am a full-time artist. So, that is what I do — murals, graphic design, things like that. (But) this is kind of where my heart is, you know?”

Robert Bentley is an Indianapolis muralist who also started as a young graffiti writer. He got involved with the Lawrence project when he saw a post on Jones’ social media showing the racial slur that sparked the cleanup effort.

“I was like, ‘Hey, do you ever need me to come paint over anything like this with something prettier or more positive?’” Bentley said. “And he was just like, ‘Hey, let’s do this whole thing like Major Taylor. And it just — it took off.”

Major Taylor is another Indianapolis skatepark that has murals and graffiti art.

Bentley helped coordinate the artists for the Lawrence project and mapped out the paint-by-numbers City of Lawrence city seal, allowing anyone who wanted to add their own touch of color to the community’s skatepark.

Bentley’s work can be found on Instagram @bentley_murals.

How much paint?

It takes a lot of spray paint to cover an entire skatepark.

Casper Jones said that, while he coordinated the work, the City of Lawrence bought paint supplies based on his estimate of what would be needed. He looked up how much of each color was ordered and added them up with a calculator app. The grand total was 296 cans of spray paint.

That doesn’t include paint for the base layers, which was rolled on and came in gallon-size buckets. The city ordered about 50 gallons for that part of the project, he said, allowing for some leftover paint to be used for touch-ups as needed going forward.