A soaring blank wall of the Tuggeranong Uniting Church has been transformed with an uplifting mural that will be officially dedicated on Sunday.
The mural is the creation of Geoff Filmer and Jayden Barling of Graffick Paint, the church commissioning the work with the hope its good vibes will spread throughout the neighbourhood.
The work is on an 11-metre high wall of the church, facing Comrie Street and the Erindale shopping centre.
The church's minister Reverend Elizabeth Raine said it was the perfect spot for some artwork.
"To me, it was a blank canvas," she said.
Reverend Raine said the church took its cue from murals in San Diego which had had a transformative impact on their neighbourhood and the painted silos of NSW which had become tourist attractions and conversation starters in their own right.
"People see [a place with murals] as a more friendly place, they see it as a place to gather, it can send up property prices, decrease unemployment. Murals have these knock-on effects which I had no idea about," she said.
"We wanted to brighten this corner and put on signs of growth and hope and resilience, particularly after the pandemic and lockdowns and that sort of thing. That's why you've got doves and rainbows and flowers and people celebrating
"We've also got our big Uniting Church symbol on there and dots around it to signal that we are into reconciliation. We're very happy with it."
Reverend Raine said she hoped the mural would be embraced by the community.
The blue section on the bottom-hand right corner had been left blank to allow the community, including children, to add their own artwork.
"We also hope it will inspire people's curiosity, help create conversations and a sense of ownership among the community, especially at the community workshop planned to finish the mural," she said.
Erindale, meanwhile, has become the epicentre of Geoff Filmer's murals. He has done others at the Comrie Street bus stop, PCYC club and gymnastics club.
"I'm very, very, very proud to be in Canberra and to have so many people support large public artworks," he said.
And the newest mural is hard to miss. "It's definitely one of the tallest ones I've done," Geoff said.
The new Tuggeranong Uniting Church mural in Comrie Street will be unveiled on Sunday at 10.45am by Reverend Simon Hansford, moderator of the ACT/NSW synod.
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