Mural at St. Therese Church brightens neighborhood

By Marnie McAllister, Record Assistant Editor

Anika Ryan, left, and Anna Palmer worked Oct. 27 on a mural that faces Kentucky Street on the property of St. Therese Church. The GermanParistown Neighborhood Association sponsored the project. The mural was designed by Anika's mom, Marjie Ryan, an artist. About 50 people from the area helped paint it. (Record Photo by Marnie McAllister)
Anika Ryan, left, and Anna Palmer worked Oct. 27 on a mural that faces Kentucky Street on the property of St. Therese Church. The GermanParistown Neighborhood Association sponsored the project. The mural was designed by Anika’s mom, Marjie Ryan, an artist. About 50 people from the area helped paint it. (Record Photo by Marnie McAllister)

The fingertips of about 50 people created a mural Sunday afternoon, Oct. 27, on the side of a garage that sits on the property of St. Therese Church at the corner of Schiller Avenue and Kentucky Street. The artwork is intended to foster a sense of community and beauty in the German-Paristown neighborhood.

The mural, sponsored by the GermanParistown Neighborhood Association, is composed entirely of small paint dots which were applied by pressing paint-dipped fingertips onto the concrete block wall of the garage. Residents of the neighborhood, parishioners of St. Therese and friends from around the community completed the mural in just a few hours on the sunny fall afternoon.

Their efforts depict a pastoral scene of rolling green hills and an opalescent sky that frames a bright green frog in the center of the painting.  It celebrate’s the heritage of the “Frogtown” neighborhood, the name given to the neighborhood surrounding St. Therese Church, which once was prone to flooding from Beargrass Creek. A ray of golden light streams down from the sky in the new mural and shines its light onto the squatting frog.

“That (ray of light) represents St. Therese Church,” said Father David Harris, administrator of St. Therese, St. Elizabeth of Hungary and Our Mother of Sorrows parishes. “And, you think, all the dots represent people in the community. To think, so many people came out to make this happen. It’s beautiful. They did a wonderful job with it.”

The mural faces Kentucky Street and the garage on which it’s painted lies on land between the church and the GermanParistown Community Center.

Steve Magre, treasurer of the GermanParistown Neighborhood Association and a member of St. Therese, said the project was funded by the neighborhood group and is aimed at “beautification.” The association, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary next month, also planted a row of trees on the property between the community center and the parish.

The mural was designed by artist Marjie Ryan, who lives in the neighborhood. She oversaw its painting on Sunday and said it holds “the fingerprint of the community.”

Father Harris said the parish welcomed the mural and the community spirit it represents.

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