Aurora is now home to one of the largest murals in Colorado — a two-block-long artistic romp that provides a colorful path to the Stanley Marketplace gates.
The city of Aurora hosted a dedication for the artwork, which is painted on the pavement, on Sunday.
The mural, by artist Yulia Avgustinovich, depicts and unites the one-time Stanley Aviation complex’s prior operations as an ejection seat manufacturer with Aurora’s history and the growth and redevelopment taking place in the area today.
It also celebrates the arrival of the new development in the Westerly Creek Village neighborhood of northwest Aurora. Stanley Marketplace is scheduled to open in October.
The main theme of the mural, aviation, is dictated by the location. Stanley Aviation and Stapleton International Airport were nearby.
The dedication came during the final day of the Cherry Arts Festival at Stanley, which began on Sept. 16.
The mural depicts airplanes in flight and leaving the ground, cogwheels and propellers, the engineered parts that made up the planes. They are intertwined with flowers, among them the state’s flower, the blue columbine.
A Rocky Mountain ram, the state animal, is portrayed walking toward the marketplace.
The mural shares its main colors, red, blue and yellow, with the design of Stanley Marketplace.
More than 300 volunteers helped to complete the Clinton Street mural, which extends from Montview Boulevard to 23rd Street. More than 180 gallons of paint, 140 brushes, and 30 rollers were used in painting the mural.
The city-sponsored street mural is the result of an ongoing effort among city departments to spur economic revitalization in the Westerly Creek Village area.