PHOTO PROVIDED Flemington Borough Council members and Art Post Awareness volunteers are pictured with the finished mural in Grove Park. Front row from left are Councillors Stephen Hoy, Wayne Allison and Albert “Hap” Hill and art teacher George Stefanski. Standing from left are Paul Clark, Mayor Gary Durkin, Councillors Traci Kuntz and Dave Grimm and volunteer Sheri Smith.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Pictured is part of the new mural in Grove Park in Flemington.
FLEMINGTON – Grove Community Park in Flemington has another mural thanks to continued community involvement.
Recently, Art Post Awareness and Paul Clark completed a new mural on the park’s restrooms that, like the others, offers a glimpse into Flemington’s past.
Clark, the son of the late Edythe Clark, had previously helped repair his late mother’s mural, painted in 2002. Twenty years later, he and his sister Linda Clark-Hanley breathed new life into their mother’s mural – which is located on one side of the restrooms in 2022.
Edythe’s mural depicts a calming riverside farm with geese landing on the water and a bear strolling nearby.
A year later, in 2023, the community – with the help of Clark and George Stefanski and his art class in the Upper School Center – installed a mural on the opposite side of the building depicting the Hanna Tidlow Canoe Livery on the canal in Flemington.
This summer, Clark and Stefanski worked together again to complete a third mural on the building with support from Flemington Borough Council.
Wayne Allison, chairman of the county’s recreation committee and council member, said Stefanski and Clark are interested in another mural.
“(George’s) painting class is always looking for places to paint,” Allison explained. “I told Paul if they want to use the other part of the bathroom, they can.”
The volunteer artists decided to once again depict a canal scene, a central element of the district’s history.
“They painted a canal scene in Flemington when the canal was a living part of the landscape… several people worked on it,” he said.
The mural was completed in late July, meaning the restroom area is almost entirely covered with local artwork.
“It’s like a Norman Rockwell painting,” Allison said. “The longer you look at it, the more details you see.”
Allison noted that the artists showed a lot of creativity in creating the mural, pointing out small details that may not be noticed by many.
“There are two things I find quite interesting. The horse (in the mural) is called Mabel and there’s a woman with her … it’s right where the ladies’ room is,” he said. “At the other end is the men’s room and they painted a men’s warehouse – there was nothing like that in Flemington, as far as I know.”
Allison noted that the community donated money to cover the cost of paint and other materials for the process. He thanked Clark and Stefanski for their initiative.
“There’s a lot of creativity in this group. When they come together, they inspire each other. It’s been great, it’s helped the district tremendously and probably the seniors who were able to be part of the original design,” Allison said. “It’s been a win-win for everyone.”
