Downtown parking garage gets artistic facelift with murals from 12 local artists
- Ellie Ruel
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Official unveiling of Marine View Parking Garage’s new adornments set for Friday
By Ellie Ruel
Juneau Independent
A collaborative 12-piece set of murals from a community project aiming to cover up a parking garage wall downtown will be formally revealed as part of May’s First Friday festivities. The pieces are the result of a year-long workshop giving artists the ins and outs of mural design and creation.
The workshop was co-sponsored by Picture This, the Downtown Business Association, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, and Princess Cruises.
Dezarae Arrowsun owns the Picture This framing shop downtown. The concrete wall nearly consumes her view from the front window.
“I was like, ‘God, I hate that wall. It's so ugly,’” Arrowsun said. “When I bought this business five years ago I thought, ‘Oh, at some point I'll go out and I'll paint that.’ And then as I'm sitting here framing, it was like, just an exercise for me, like, ‘Well, how would I paint that on there?’ Because as you can see, it flakes and bubbles off.”
She planned to paint the wall herself, but she didn’t have enough time between running her business and raising three kids. As a former mural artist she used the workshop to teach the artistic community about the legal side of painting on walls, encourage them to paint larger pieces, and help address a longstanding eyesore.
“To go out and do your own mural is not rocket science,” Arrowsun said. “You take it one step at a time, just as you would when you're painting anything, but mostly I see the permit side and the legal side and like all of the paperwork side. As artists we don't like to do that. It's not fun.”
She had each artist paint on an 8-by-4-foot sheet of plywood coated in primer and sealed with caulk around the edges. After the pieces were complete, Arrowsun sealed them in with protective layers to keep the elements out. The panels, which showcase a variety of art styles and scenes, will be installed on two wooden rails attached to the parking garage walls.
One of those panels was designed by Vika Phoenix and her wife, Victoria Phoenix, featuring a cartoony whale in Vika’s signature art style. The subject was inspired by a children’s book she wrote called “Whaley and Snaily,” and the artistic process helped her start finalizing illustrations.
“We wrote a book a long time ago,” Vika Phoenix explained. “We just needed to finalize it, and then when we were painting the whale I was like, ‘Oh, you know, this actually is it,’ because we didn't have all the illustrations done. I'm like, ‘This is our character. This is it.’ Because we were struggling to find the manifestation of the characters.”
The whale was modeled after a watercolor painting Vika Phoenix made in a class. Victoria Phoenix, who describes herself as more of a classically trained artist, helped with color selection and adding “Alaskan” elements like kelp, inspired by a local kelp hot sauce the couple discovered shortly after moving to Juneau.
“We knew what our strengths and weaknesses were,” Vika Phoenix said. “I'm not, like, a fine artist in the traditional sense, but I like very bright colors and cartoony things, and then Victoria's really good with finishing it.”
Part of the challenge of the project was blowing a small proposal piece up to a wall-sized panel. After weekend painting sessions, the couple would work together on digitally mocking up planned tweaks and changes to their outline before returning the next week.
The couple is new to Juneau and used the project as a way to branch out into the community and as artists. Vika Phoenix previously went to art school in Dijon, France, where she and other students painted on the walls of an outdoor sports court, and she also freehanded a wall of tropical plants in her house. Victoria Phoenix helped create two murals in New Orleans through AmeriCorps volunteering.
“I definitely am gonna paint bigger. I don't know if I'll do murals per se, because it does seem like a ton of legality type stuff, but I definitely feel more able to navigate that world,” Victoria Phoenix said. “I was definitely inspired to just do more art.”
Arrowsun hopes it inspires more people to paint on the walls.
“The goal is so that more people go out and paint things on the walls,” she said. “It can be gray here. We need beautiful art, like everywhere.”
The panels showcase a wide variety of scenes and techniques, with some capturing landscapes and wildlife.
The official unveiling is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. Friday at Picture This. After a year, the murals will come down and be returned to the artists, who can keep or sell the panels, and the workshop will be repeated. Applications will open later this year.
Vika Phoenix noted the mural workshop fosters a sense of connection.
“This event brings the community together over art,” she said. “There's so many things that happen in the world. And I think people sometimes focus on bad things, but I think this is one of the great things we have in Juneau, we have all of these amazing, talented people. And I think that should bring our community together. Maybe it will inspire other people in Juneau to do art.”
• Contact Ellie Ruel at ellie.ruel@juneauindependent.com.
