Found junk adds to mural's appeal

Joe Scott

Of the Suburban Journals

North County Journal

06/07/2006

Near Interstate 70, the North County Bike Trail gradually melds from crickets droning and birds chirping to the buzz of traffic on the highway overpass. After a bright splash of sunlight, the long, dark 240-foot-long Jones Tunnel replaces the brush line.

There waiting at the tunnel's mouth are large black-and-white cartoon characters painted on the tunnel walls. A red Buick Skylark's fender serves as a pelican's beak, and a hubcap is the eye on a fishing lure intended to tempt a large-toothed fish lurking further in the tunnel.

TrailNet and the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department dedicated the three-dimensional mural May 27.

"We wanted to attract people to the tunnel and make it interesting," said Peter Clarkson of TrailNet, which is helping develop the trail along with Great River Greenway. "We know from studies that the more people use the trail, the safer it is." 

People walking their dogs, families taking bike rides and some riders of MetroLink use the North County Bike Trail, Clarkson said.

"The tunnel was kind of scary looking. It's out in the middle of nowhere," said Pam Hellwege, head of McCluer High School's art department. "It's much better with the mural characters on it."

More than 30 McCluer High School students from Hellwege's and Michele Motil's art classes helped two artists complete the project.

Artists Jim McKelvey of Third Degree Glass Factory and Justin Tolentino guided students during the project.

Students painted and prepared the walls. Others made trips to junkyards with the artists, pulling out metal scraps to use on the walls.

"The students were energetic and wanted to do lots of work," Tolentino said. "There were six to eight students on the tunnel team who did most of the work. They were pulling stuff from junkyards and scrap metal recyclers."

The team had to make careful creative decisions, too.

"We had to strike a balance between something that looked inviting and something that had to live in the tunnel," McKelvey said.

Another problem they faced was the prevalence of graffiti and the likelihood that a regular mural in the isolated area would be defaced.

"We needed an edgy, urban art that had a certain feel so that people who tagged walls wouldn't deface it," he said. "It had to be edgy and cool, but not corporate."

That's why he brought Tolentino onto the project, McKelvey said.

Tolentino said he got his start as a "graffiti artist" when he was younger — before receiving formal training at college.

"It already has gotten some graffiti," he said. "But the thought was, ‘If it's going to get some graffiti, why not choose graffiti-type art to begin with?'"

However, his focus is more on how trail users view the artwork.

"I just hope people get it for what it is, and take it whimsically and don't look at these as menacing creatures," Tolentino said. "I want people to have fun with it and enjoy it for what it is."

Now, rather than fixing eyes on a long, dark place, a jogger or biker's eyes are drawn to a bird with a hubcap eye or bird with a car-fender beak.

"The best thing about it was that I overheard one student say, ‘I never knew community service could be so much fun,'" Hellwege said.

NOTE: The North County Bikeway runs from the Ferguson Citywalk district to UMSL's north campus.