Over the years, the 1100 block of Park Street has been a stretch of parking spots, a sidewalk and a trash enclosure, but now the small space in the Vista is a permanent art exhibit honoring the past and art-focused future of the Columbia district.
The new wall relief includes two chiseled portraits of a 1921 South Carolina train conductor and Columbia artist Laura Spong, who made her mark as an abstract expressionist artist throughout the city and Southeast.
Spong had a long career in art but gained commercial success in her later years when she started renting a studio space at Vista Studios in the late 1980s. She hosted a solo exhibition celebrating her 80th birthday, and soon after, museums and collectors began paying large sums for her work. She passed away in August 2018 at 92, but her work is still featured across Columbia and the state.
Ohio-based artists David and Bethany Falter said the artwork, titled “The Convergence,” represents the blending of history from the time train tracks ran through the center of Columbia to when Spong started making an impact as an artist. David Falter said the portraits portray perseverance and remind passersby that they can overcome challenges as a community.
Kershaw Spong looks at a portrait of his mother, Laura Spong, during the unveiling of the new artwork on April 11, 2025.
“It’s up and coming and it’s still growing,” David Falter said. “I think that we need to come together as a community, and to keep pushing forward.”
The 13-foot-by-7-foot wall art took about a week to complete. The married couple spent multiple 12- to 13-hour days layering cement, drawing outlines, painting and working away at the wall with a hammer drill.
Bethany Falter said that during the project, she felt especially connected to Spong, who she said was dedicated to art, her family and her community. The late artist’s legacy reminded Bethany Falter of a Bible verse.
“She was so instrumental in building up this city through art and her mentoring and her empowerment of women, young women,” Bethany Falter said. “Because of her uprightness, because of who she was as a person, this city is what it is today.”
Trey and Kershaw Spong, two of Laura Spong’s six children, attended the artwork’s dedication ceremony April 11 and said they were happy to see their mother honored.
Kershaw (left) and Trey Spong pose for a picture in front of a mural featuring their mother, Laura Spong, during the unveiling of the art piece on April 11, 2025.
“It looks like her, reminds me of her and I think it’s just wonderfully done,” Trey Spong said
Kershaw Spong explained how his mother was one of the early artists to start making an impact in the Vista’s art scene. She dedicated her life to art and began her largest painting, which now hangs in the Koger Center, when she was 85, Kershaw Spong said.
“She would be befuddled by all this,” Kershaw Spong said. “She would say, ‘What’s the fuss? I want to get back to my studio and paint.'”
Trey Spong said he hopes the mural will remind people of his mother’s deep love for others and encourage them to care for their community as she did.
“You know, she was big on community and what we mean to each other,” Trey Spong said. “The art was just sort of part of it, but it’s really about the people.”
The Congaree Vista Guild commissioned the installation. Executive Director Abby Anderson said the group unanimously voted to feature Laura Spong.
The public art piece is the newest of 17 artworks and murals installed around the arts and entertainment district. Another project is in the works to create a lighted installation in the Lincoln Street tunnel, according to past Free Times reporting.
Anderson hopes the two portraits will encourage people walking by to be curious and take time to connect with the artist’s work and impact in Columbia.
The road-side part of the art piece on the 1100 block of Park Street features an old train map inspired by the train that used to run through Columbia.
“I hope people can appreciate it, because it’s a mural, but it’s also not a mural, it’s a wall sculpture, but it’s still kind of set onto the wall, so it’s something really unique that I don’t think that we have here in Columbia,” Anderson said. “So I hope that as people drive by, they kind of go, ‘Who’s that? What’s this?’ And then they can come and approach it.”
The artwork is located at the intersection of Park and Gervais streets next to Pearlz Oyster Bar. Those interested in viewing or purchasing Laura Spong’s work can reach out to or visit Over the Mantel Gallery.
