CONWAY, Ark. (KATV) — Downtown Conway is about to get more colorful with a new mural attraction outside city hall.
Artist Jessica Jones said the mural will consist of fireflies, a big moth, and the iconic hanging baskets and lamp posts scattered around the city.
“I estimated that this project will take about a month,” Jones said Friday.
Jones is no stranger to Conway. In fact, she said she’s painted over 30 murals throughout the city, both outdoors and in private spaces.
People [tell me] ‘thank you so much for beautifying our city’ or ‘I see this every day and it makes me happy’,” Jones said. “Sometimes even their personal stories of ‘this has a symbolic meaning to me’.”
Although she paints murals in other cities, she said Conway is where she first got her start.
“I didn’t originally go to school to do art,” Jones said. “It kind of started as something I did in my free time.”
She said her first piece started as her doing a sketch for a friend who was a graphic designer and ultimately turned into her first official outdoor painting job.
“A couple of days before their soft opening [of the coffee shop], they were like, ‘there’s only so much level of detail that they can get in the vinyl. Can you paint it in the mural?’,” Jones said.
Jones said she was unsure if she would have the skill to paint a mural but was encouraged to do it by the graphic artist.
“Sometimes you just have to do something once to say, this is what I love,” Jones said. “I just stated taking more of those opportunities because I did enjoy working big.”
Since then, Jones said she’s been able to build a good career out of painting and noted art is a “huge reflector of a healthy community.”
Support your local artists. Arts are important,” she said. “Artists, value yourself. Just because you love what you doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be paid for it.”
