ALL IN THE FAMILY
Daughter paints mural at Juniata Valley YMCA
Trending
BURNHAM -- When the Juniata Valley YMCA asked Aubrey Kirkland to paint a mural on its walls, the Mifflintown artist was excited yet nervous to follow in her father's footsteps.
"It's neat that we both have a mural in the same building," the 20-year-old Kirkland said.
In 2011, Aubrey's father, Dwight, painted a mural inside the YMCA, located in Burnham, which commemorated the its 100 years of existence.
Her father, who painted more than half a dozen murals around Lewistown, died in 2014 at age 52. Now, nearly a decade later, Aubrey completed her first mural in the YMCA's lobby area.
The mural shows many activities that the YMCA offers, including cornhole, soccer, weightlifting, pickleball, gymnastics, swimming, basketball and karate.
"I tried to make it really colorful," Aubrey said of her artwork. "It's right when you go in the door, so everybody will see it."
It took her about two weeks to complete the mural, which she finished around the end of July.
YMCA Executive Director Victoria Searer had reached out to Kirkland about painting a mural. "We have so many white walls in the Y, and (Board of directors member) Cher Harpster and I were looking at other organizations that we could partner with."
They realized that grants were available from Community Partnerships and the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts. Eventually, they reached out to Kirkland.
"I had known that he did the original one a while ago," Kirkland said of her dad's mural at the YMCA.
Kirkland put together a sketch of her proposed design and took it to Searer, who was extremely impressed with her talents.
Kirkland was a bit nervous after being given artistic freedom with the project. "She said, 'This is your thing,' and I could whatever I wanted. She give me a list of sports offered there," Kirkland said in a conversation with Searer.
And with that, Kirkland went to work. This was an important project for her as she wanted to live up to her dad's legacy.
"I didn't do art until I got into high school," said Kirkland, a 2021 graduate of Juniata High School. She is currently an art education major at Kutztown University.
"She amazed me," Searer said of the mural. "She brought me this rough sketch on a tiny, little piece of paper, and it turned into this huge piece of artwork - the size of the wall. The mural is of everything we have here. She really brought it to life."