Thornton resident Jay Michael Jaramillo has left his mark in the city, and he intends to do it again and again.
“It’s really cool to drive by and see my artwork, and especially to see other people enjoying it,” Jaramillo, 26, said. “It’s a gift that we artists get to give, and it’s a gift to watch others enjoy it.”
Two traffic utility boxes that Thornton graffiti removal specialists have been trying to keep clean for years are now covered from top to bottom in the electric colors, geometric designs and surrealist interpretations of Colorado that Jaramillo dreamed up.
“Our utility boxes and poles are the things that get graffitied the most. Utility boxes have always been a problem,” said Nicole Jeffers, Thornton’s manager of neighborhood services. “But it seems like artwork is respected, and that detracts from people wanting to vandalize them.”
There were 795 incidents of graffiti in 2016, which added up to 10,486 square feet of vandalism that needed to be removed from homes, businesses, parks and almost anything with a smooth surface.Jeffers said about 70 percent of those instances happened on utility boxes and poles.
“It took two of us an entire year to just stop the repeat (incidents),” said Randall Janda, Thornton’s graffiti removal officer. “We would cover it up, and it would get targeted again the next weekend.”
And so last year, the Thornton arts and culture division launched the Outside the Box Traffic Mural project. Jaramillo lead the pilot project, creating a design for the traffic control box outside Thornton High School.
“We wanted to see if it would get tagged, first, and then we wanted to see if the design would stand up,” said Krystle Codrey, arts and volunteer coordinator for Thornton. “The results were awesome. It has not been tagged in over a year, and we’ve had nothing but positive response from the community, wanting to see more and more. So we’re just going to keep going.”
This year, the city tapped six local artists to create murals for six traffic boxes often tagged in highly visible areas around the city.
“The traffic box is such a (mundane) thing,” Codrey said. “But they’re everywhere. They can either be a place to drive by and be inspired, or it can just be a ubiquitous box that does what it’s supposed to do and that’s it. These murals are right there at street level. You drive by it, you walk by it and it changes. It’s no longer a utility box, it’s part of the community.”
“In 2018, we’re hoping to get grant funding to get 15 boxes,” Codrey said. “We’ll find out toward the end of this summer, but we want to continue, no matter what, because we’re really dedicated to this project.”
Jaramillo and his father, Jerry Jaramillo, a fine arts sculptor and painter who has lived in Northglenn for 34 years, were among the six that painted boxes this go around.
“Their designs are really stunning,” Codrey said. “It’s hard not to put them out to the public.”
“Atlantis in a Fish Bowl” is Jerry Jaramillo’s creation, located at 112th Avenue and Madison Street.
“I worked on it for a few days. It’s just down the street from my house,” Jaramillo said. “And while I worked, people would walk by and watch or ask questions or take pictures. I had a guy who came by and asked what kind of techniques I was using, and a woman who walks by every day said it brightens up her walk. That makes me feel good.”
Every now and then, Jay Jaramillo will catch someone admiring his work from the roadside near Colorado Boulevard and 108th Avenue — “ColorFULL Colorado” — or his first piece off Washington Street and Eppinger Street.
“These are my old stomping grounds,” Jaramillo said. “I played football at Five Star Stadium in middle school and high school, and I work at Carpenter Park. These places matter to me. And these (murals) can help bring new life. They bring people together and give the community something to be proud of.”