By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
Crestline just added to its reputation as a mountain mural mecca by having another beautiful mural added to its community beauty. The new mural was completed in time for Jamboree Days on the exterior walls of the Oak Leaf Bakery on Lake Drive. Both the eastern side of the building, which faces the Bear Claw Saloon, and the back wall of the Oak Leaf Bakery, which faces the back parking lot of the “A” Restaurant on the south/east corner of Forest Shade Drive, are covered with the beautiful new mural.
The Oak Leaf Bakery commissioned well-known mural artist Wes Abarca of Genesis Murals, who has painted numerous murals in Crestline and other local mountain communities and nationwide, to design and paint the mural of a colorful momma bear, followed by her cub. It is painted in Abarca’s distinctive “stained glass style” with a variety of bright colors and action.
The Crestline Chamber of Commerce had commissioned several murals to be painted, showcasing activities that residents and visitors enjoy in the community, including bicycling, kayaking and hiking. Since then, even more businesses and homes have added murals to their buildings, the most recent of which is the “Lake Gregory Village” mural on Lake Drive.
Abarca has been painting all over the U.S., doing mural competitions and painting large pieces of art he has been commissioned to do. Abarca has painted several other murals in the mountain area of bears, wolfs, eagles, racoons and peacocks. He painted the murals on the outside of Rim High, Mountain High and Charles Hoffman Elementary. Last spring, he created the large eagle mural at Valley of Enchantment Elementary School.
The new mural of the Oak Leaf Bakery bear may be one of the smaller murals Abarca has done locally, as it is only about eight feet tall, but the artwork wraps around more than two sides of the small building and is contributing to making Crestline the mountain mural mecca.
To see a snippet of all the murals in the community and their descriptions, visit www.crestlinechamber.org/murals.
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