Friends and neighbors gathered on Sunday to paint a street mural in the Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood on the Portland-Milwaukie boundary. The street mural on SE Sherrett St. at SE 30th Ave. is not the first in Portland (a street mural is at SE Sherrett St. at SE 9th Ave. in Portland). It is the first of its kind in the Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood.
Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood District Association’s (AJC NDA) transportation chair Angel Falconer spearheaded the street mural project. The AJC NDA endorsed the project back in June 2015. The funding was partly from a grant by the Clackamas County Cultural Coalition, a program managed by the Clackamas County Arts Alliance, and from donations.
The eighteen-foot diameter mural contains seven sections, representing the connections with the Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood in Portland and Milwaukie. The center of the mural features a rose pedal on the north to represent Portland’s “Rose City and to the south a dogwood pedal to represent Milwaukie’s “Dogwood City.” The outer ring six sections contains the pink field with the Portland city skyline; yellow field for the Davis Graveyard; purple field for trees and mountains; red field featuring farm and wildlife animals; brown for the Coho salmon spawning in Johnson Creek; and orange featuring new Portland-Milwaukie TriMet MAX Orange Line Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, which opens September 12.
The paint used in the project was street marking paint, the kind to mark parking line and curbs. Five colors were available: white, black, red, yellow, and blue. Milwaukie councilor Lisa Batey was in charge of being the “mixologist” and created additional colors out of the five colors available.
Several city and neighborhood leaders, neighborhood residents, and friends helped paint the design and fill color. The entire mural took almost seven hours to complete. Light rain fell on and off, so canopies were set up, but the canopy legs were in the way in the center so the center may have to be completed early Monday morning.
Credit and many thanks go to City of Portland, City of Milwaukie, Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood Association, Clackamas County Arts Alliance, Clackamas County Cultural Coalition, Miller Paint Company, Stoll Berne, Streamline Imaging, Ardenwald-Johnson Creek Neighborhood Association transportation chair Angel Falconer, Milwaukie mayor Mark Gamba, Milwaukie councilors Lisa Batey and Karin Power, and all the neighbors and friends who helped with work and/or donated materials and/or funds.
(Photos: Bryan J. Dorr)