On sidewalks from Ross to Belmont Avenues on Lower Greenville, the pony walls that are sometimes sitting next to plants were mostly nondescript or, in Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association President Jean McAulay’s words, “ugly.”
Photography by Jessica Turner
“We just felt like we could do better,” McAulay says. “They would get graffitied at times. They were just sort of various shades of beige and just ugly and sort of a big presence on the street that we felt could be a whole lot nicer.”
And now, they are.
These walls are decked out in murals depicting dark green leaves, purple flowers and the orange wings of a monarch butterfly.
McAulay says the year-long process involved getting the support of the commercial property owners and some business owners, finding muralist Chera Brooker (aka Chera Creative) via East Dallas Arts District and working with the City. The latter step involved having a wordless design that didn’t act as promotion as well as a maintenance plan.
“(The City) saw it as a really positive improvement as long as we could adhere to their regulations,” McAulay says.
Without the support of the two biggest commercial property owners on Greenville Avenue — Andres Properties and Madison Partners — McAulay said this project wouldn’t have happened. Jon Hetzel, managing partner at Madison Partners, says the pony walls were added in the early 2010s for “visual character” and, in some areas, to hide grade changes on the street.
“Over time, they started to chip and get graffitied and graffiti painted over, and they’re starting to look a little junky,” Hetzel says. “We’re happy to support a refresh of them.”
The murals had to walk the line between being attractive but also not distracting, McAulay says. With Brooker, the team was able to use nature to strike that balance.
“We also didn’t want to do something that overly added to the visual clutter on the street,” Hetzel says. “You already got a lot of different storefronts, signage, a lot of interesting visual activity, so we wanted them to look nicer, have a creative flare, add some color, but we didn’t want it to go too overboard.”
With that in mind, it makes sense why Brooker was hired. Her previous projects depict plants and butterflies, with a special focus on flowers. She also created the murals knowing the short, bench-like walls would get some wear and tear by people sitting on them, but they are made to still look good in spite of that.
The pony walls on Greenville Avenue may be shorter than the average mural-sized wall, but there were over 30 of them. Since they are double-sided, that meant adding murals to just under 70 surfaces. She and her team completed the project in about 17 days.
“It was a little deceiving because the wall seems so small, but once you start painting them because you wrap it around, it’s actually quite a lot of square footage,” Brooker says.
Brooker rose to the challenge, all while pregnant with her first child. Luckily, she had her father and a couple other painters helping her complete the project.
Murals, which are prevalent throughout Greenville Avenue, act as a graffiti deterrent and are less likely to get tagged as opposed to if they were left blank, McAulay says.
“Graffiti artists are artists as well,” Brooker says. “I think if they already see art there and maybe the hard work that went behind it, they’re less likely to tag it because they’re like, ‘Oh, they probably worked hard on that.’ But I also know it’s going to happen. That’s part of the job, and it can be covered up if needed.”
This project cost $25,500 and was funded by commercial property owners, local residents, the Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association, Belmont Addition Conservation District and local business owners, McAulay says. The neighborhood association is also planning to replace lamppost banners, which will feature the mural design, on the same stretch of Greenville Avenue.
“While the artist Chera was out painting, people would always stop and talk to her and just say how pleased they are, how beautiful (the murals) are,” McAulay says. “We had a GoFundMe campaign throughout this … and we had signs up where she was painting, and all of a sudden someone would send us a $200 donation because they were walking down the street and saw how nice the murals look.”
The pony walls now match the vibrancy of Greenville Avenue, Brooker says, and she is grateful to have her art featured in our cool neighborhood.
“As an artist, when you’re painting it, you’re just so close to it that it’s hard to see it from an outsider’s perspective. But the last couple weeks, I’ve been able to drive by, and I just see it as an outsider, and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, that really does look good,’” Brooker says. “It makes such a difference having that colorful artwork.”
