A new art project recently began making its way into downtown Enid.
A silhouette of a figure picking up a ball near a gutter was painted on the wall of Jackson Diamond Jewelers in the alleyway across the street from the Breezeway on West Randolph. The painting was done during the safer street simulation in late June, said Main Street Enid Director Kelly Tompkins.
It’s part of a small street art project undertaken by Main Street Enid, Tompkins said, and the art on the side of Jackson Diamond Jewelers will soon be added to and finished with a silhouette of another child painted on the top of the pipe putting a ball into it.
“We were thinking of … little street art pieces, just to make your walk more interesting as you walk around (downtown),” Tompkins said.
Since the project is being done on private property with the business owner’s permission, Tompkins said the project wasn’t something that had to go through the city of Enid for. Main Street Enid is working with local artists and poets for the small downtown art projects.
Plans are to add on to the silhouette art project with more silhouettes in the coming months in other areas downtown, which Tompkins said Main Street Enid already has numerous ideas for.
Tompkins said local artist Christy Timberlake drew the first silhouette, and will add the second half soon. Timberlake didn’t respond to requests for comment by presstime.
“For each one we will contact the building owner with our idea, so they will slowly just start popping up around downtown,” Tompkins said.
Another project Main Street Enid started recently was sidewalk poetry, which was also first tested during the safer street simulation.
The project involves putting poetry on downtown sidewalks that can only be seen when it rains, taking content from local poets. Main Street did some small sidewalk poetry during the simulation, but plan on incorporating bigger poetry soon.
“We want people to walk around more or maybe people have to walk from their parking if they were downtown, and we just want to make their walk a little more interesting and we want people to find things downtown that makes them smile and just add (another) entertaining factor to our downtown,” Tompkins said. “Watch for more to pop up, (we) don’t have a (set) timeline.”
Story provided by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Ryan Miller
