Our office has been located on E. Las Animas Street for many years now, and we love being in this creative district of Colorado Springs, filled with new museums, restaurants, and art. Now, we have the city’s largest mural directly across from our parking lot, giving us even more beauty to fill our view!
Commissioned by the Colorado Springs Police Department for the exterior of their parking garage, the mural includes scenes of Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and the Manitou Incline, as well as the skyline of Downtown Colorado Springs and architectural treasures like the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel.
The artist of the large-scale work is Paes 164, an award-winning mural and graffiti artist and a resident artist at Fallen Heroes Tattoo. He spoke to KRDO last week about the mural at its unveiling. “I was getting chased by the police for doing graffiti – of course I didn’t think I would get paid to do it,” said Paes 164. “My hope is that people are just going to enjoy and see that our police department is working hard to keep our neighborhood safe and do things with us.”
The goal of the mural is to create a positive message through art that brings the community together. “This is a big difference even compared to ten years ago with the type of art we had in the city available for public viewing,” said Paes 164 to KRDO. “Now we have murals popping up around town – I think it is a great thing.”
The mural is 50 feet high and over 350 feet long. According to CSPD, it took 50 gallons of paint and 350 cans of spray paint.
Here’s KRDO reporting on the mural’s unveiling last week:
You can learn more about the artist by visiting his website.
And a time-lapse video showing the entire process of creating the mural can be found on the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Facebook Page.