Owenwood Farm & Neighbor Space on John West Road. Photo by Renee Umsted.
An East Dallas artist mentored a group of Dallas teens to help create a new mural at Owenwood Farm and Neighbor Space.
Brooke Chaney, who goes by MOM, led seven kids aged 12-16 to complete a mural on the building at 1451 John West Road.
Chaney is participating in the Equitable Artist Residency through the Creative Arts Center of Dallas, which hosts the free Run with the P.A.C.K. summer camp, the Public Art Camp for Kids, in collaboration with the city’s Office of Arts and Culture. Along with the mural, Chaney’s work is being featured in an exhibition called Procession, on view through Aug. 11 at the Creative Arts Center.
Beth Yturri, an education manager at the Creative Arts Center of Dallas, said they had worked with Owenwood before, hosting a creative aging program called Encore at the site on John West.
“When we were thinking about a place to host Run with the P.A.C.K. this year, I immediately thought of Owenwood because they are doing a lot for the East Dallas community — providing resources, having art classes,” Yturri said.
Chaney didn’t just teach the students about painting a mural; they also learned about how to get a commission and work with site partners to devise and tweak a design.
“We had a lot of kids that took some really good initiative with the mural,” said Chaney, a former high school art teacher. “This is literally like their brainchild. I just kind of cleaned up the design and then helped them figure out how to paint it.”
The students took inspiration from the nonprofits that are housed at the building, such as Aspire, White Rock Community Church, Hope Supply Co., Grow North Texas, Metrocare Services and the Trans Empowerment Coalition. They also visited the farm and community garden.
“We really just focused on the theme of growth overall, and all of us really seemed to visually be inspired by the garden and the farm. So at first it was a little bit chaotic, but we got it together and came up with an idea that everyone liked,” said Chaney, a co-founder of Trade Oak Cliff and contributor to Meow Wolf. “And people really took ownership over certain parts of the mural and wanted to paint specific things that they identified with.”
The mural depicts a community garden surrounded by homes and flora. Instead of people, insects such as ladybugs, bees, worms and ants populate the scene, interacting with each other and working together to harvest and nurture the environment. Flowers were painted in colors of flags that represent members of the LGBTQIA+ communities.
But it’s not a perfect life for the mural inhabitants. The Owenwood community wanted the scene to be a little more realistic, so the artists painted some plots of land and homes gray to reflect gentrification and a lack of resources, Chaney said.
See the mural at the public unveiling, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. July 12 at Owenwood Farm and Neighbor Space. There will be food and drinks.
