Garland Mural a Gift to the City

A muralist commissioned by real estate investor Robert A. Smith has just completed a mural at 506 main street in Downtown Garland. It’s futuristic pop art that jumps right off the wall with its color and intensity. When we questioned Smith on the cost of this gigantic piece of outdoor art, he replied, “it’s my gift to the city”. Oddly, the mural is on the outer wall of a building that was once a sweet shop in the front and a speakeasy in the rear, during prohibition. Frocksy, a newly opened boutique, is now in the interior of that historic old building.

In a small vacant lot between the Garland Furniture Company and what used to be the Ivy Cottage (now Frocksy) there that most of us didn’t even know existed, there is what is becoming a small outdoor art gallery. The first installation was a sculpture commissioned by Garland’s Neighborhood Vitality commission. It’s whimsical modern art that the sculptor has named, “Elements of Life”. It is about 10 feet tall and stands near the sidewalk at the front of the narrow space. This space, the vacant lot turned art gallery, was formerly covered over by a sheet of plywood. With the plywood in place it appeared that the furniture store and the Ivy Cottage were connected. When Smith recently purchased the property he removed the facade and revealed the little lot, which is about 15 feet across. It had been hidden for decades and the floor was nothing more than broken concrete. With the sculpture in place, Smith poured a new concrete floor and commissioned the mural by Preston Pannek, an artist who has completed 20 outdoor murals in Deep Ellum. Frocksy owner Tracy Claybrook operated a boutique in Deep Ellum for five years and was happy to renew acquaintances with the artist.

There’s more art to come, according to Smith. At least two more walls and the floor of the “pocket gallery” will be transformed from crumbling red brick to artists’ canvases. At long last the 21st century is creeping into Historic Downtown Garland. It gives one the sense of a revival!