Three local artists recently completed a mural on the baseball shed at Opti Park, located at 780 E. 66th St [A3 on map].

The Optimist Club of North Side Indianapolis, Inc. wanted to "show a little love" to the baseball shed on the south end of the diamond. They connected with Blend Creative Minds, a small artist collective based in Indianapolis. The artists on this project were Erica Parker, Rafael Caro, and Mike Kane. The Optimist Club provided the supplies and Blend Creative Minds donated their time to create the art.

On November 20th the Optimist Club and artists gathered at the mural and the kids from the nearby Sapling School took a field trip to walk over too.

"We love this park," said Erica Parker, "It's a really important asset for the community, for all the kids that come here."

"We had taken our kids here since they were little, they are ten now" added Rafael Caro, "The idea of the design is A Day At The Park"

Erica explained that the art is a child-level mural. She wanted it to be accessible and relatable to the little ones who visit.

"Kids want to walk around with their parent and show them things," said Erica. "I used that idea to come up with a mural that has little tokens strewn out so the kids can create a story when walking around it."

As the preschool class from Sapling School walked single file into the park, Erica recalled, "they would come here everyday [during the painting] and sit right by me saying things like, 'How do you do that?' and 'That's so beautiful!'. When I was having a really bad day, this group of beautiful children would lift me back up."

During their visits to watch the mural being created, the kids made suggestions. They asked for things like a butterfly and apples. Erica's daughter painted a unicorn on the mural.

Rafael said, "My son and I would try to fly kites here, that usually crashed, so we added a kite to the mural."

Mike Kane added, "You can rest right here in front of [the giant]," as he demonstrated by reclining next to a part of the mural he painted.

Come to Opti Park to visit the new mural (it is just south of the Indianapolis Art Center). Your kids will love it.