‘Travel, hope and new beginnings’

A new mural has come to town, thanks to Creston Arts and artist Nicole Salgar.

Located on the north side of Brett Street Power Washing, the mural portrays Creston’s Restored Depot, with inspiration and “meaning found in traditional quilts”, according to Creston Arts.

“This design is portraying inside the depot. It symbolizes the depot as a train station where people gather and travel, using it as a form where people move through spaces,” Salgar said.

Quilting is incorporated through the flying geese pattern, symbolizing “migration, travel, hope and new beginnings.”

Other aspects of the mural include a kitten and a man playing checkers. Both are integral parts to the story of the mural.

While working on the mural, volunteers found a kitten. Upon taking it to the vet, one of its legs had to be amputated. The kitten has since been adopted by one of the volunteers, and the three-legged kitten can be spotted in the new mural.

The man playing checkers represents Arthur Rice, a Creston Depot shoe shiner of 44 years. In addition to shining shoes, Rice played many games of checkers in his time at the depot, now memorialized in the mural. Rice retired at 75 and his shoe-shining booth is now kept at the Creston Historical Village at McKinley Park.

Salgar, an artist from Miami, worked with young volunteers from Union County through the Mural Mentor Program to complete the mural.

This program was started in 2020 and has contributed to the more than 50 murals found in Creston and area towns. Creston Arts explains that through this, “Creston area youth complete community service hours working in partnership with professional artists to create public art, connecting the youth to the community through the creation of public works.”