By Scott D. Johnston
For The Daily World
Associated Arts of Ocean Shores has completed its second of 20 planned murals, this one painted on three garage doors next to the Moby Dick restaurant at 788 Pt. Brown Ave. NE.
AAOS is asking the community to join the public art effort, with a message of how “ridiculously cheap” it is to help local artists create big, spectacular pieces of popular public art.
“Literally, a few hundred bucks for paint and supplies and a few lunches, and we’ve got another big mural in Ocean Shores,” said Ed Schroll, president of the 45-year-old nonprofit organization that includes area artists, about 25 local businesses, and individual supporting members.
“Our goal is 20 murals,” he said. “We realize that’s not all going to happen this year, but some of it already is.”
Having so many murals scattered through town is “something everyone would enjoy,” he said, adding it would create “a lot of really cool places where (visitors) will have their smartphones out, taking pictures and selfies to send to everybody they know, about what a great time they’re having here in Ocean Shores.”
Schroll said project leader Jim Beauvais, Joan Lohr and Michael Bedford took about a month to paint the Moby Dick mural, during which time they attracted a lot of attention. “We had people taking pictures all the time,” he said.
Schroll said Ford Wilgus and Donny Bishop of the restaurant suggested the project to AAOS last summer, and ultimately helped fund it. In the meantime, AAOS completed the first mural last September on the small building that houses the city-owned radio station, KOSW-FM 91.3, at 189 Ocean Lake Way.
“People can participate in this project by painting it, if they know how, or by helping fund it,” he said.
Business memberships in AAOS are $35 a year. Other means of support include donating materials or buying a $20 individual AAOS membership.
Schroll said AAOS has set up a specific fund for mural project donations, and more information is available online at www.associatedarts.org or my emailing him directly at ewschroll@gmail.com.
Schroll said the group would love to do one or more huge murals at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, something he said the city would happily accept but hasn’t offered to fund. For something of that scale, he said donations totaling “a couple thousand dollars could make that real, and a beautiful centerpiece for the project.”
