New public art in Des Moines includes a mural made by summer campers, a staircase of koi

A mural repping south Des Moines pride. A new bus shelter adorned with art. A mural that boasts of the creativity of Des Moines teens and youth.

Des Moines has welcomed new public art across the sides of businesses and on staircases in recent months.

Jill Wells, one of the artists behind a new mural at Evelyn K. Davis Park, said a growing number of installations in Des Moines feature designs by local artists. Wells said recognizing and highlighting local artists' work means a thriving arts and culture center for the artists who are living here.

"That they’re able to actually make a living off of what they are extremely skilled at, that their voices are valued — it means probably more than I can articulate," she said.

Find these six new pieces of art next time you're on a morning jog, running errands or snapping pics for your social media.

More: Jill Wells, a 'caring and focused' artist, adds color to Des Moines with murals, mentorship

Women star in a mural at the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge

Artist Ally Frame's "We Are One" mural, on the east side of the Des Moines River under the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge’s overpass, aims to share a welcoming message of unity.

Frame, who is behind more than 20 murals in central Iowa, including one in Des Moines' East Village, describes her work as colorful, whimsical and bold. Frame submitted her design for the bridge after the city put out a request for art proposals to fill the space.

Set on a bright pink background, the mural features children of diverse backgrounds holding hands, illustrating that the world is connected, according to the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the city's economic and community development organization, which manages the mural alongside Operation Downtown, a self-supported municipal improvement district. Woven into the design are Protea flowers to symbolize diversity, and animals such as the crane and dove, which symbolize peace, and a tiger to represent the strength of a community that works together. "We are connected" is painted in orange and pink.

"I thought maybe I should have girls as the focus," Frame told the Des Moines Register. "I wanted to show like a cast of different females of different races and ethnicities, kind of like joining together and also showing how they kind of like flow with the animals. Like we're also one with the earth and when everyone comes together we're better and stronger."

Frame, who is from Des Moines, said it is special to have her work featured prominently in her own city.

"It just kind of feels surreal," she said. "It really highlights kind of what I like doing and I like drawing animals and bright colors, so it was fun to be able to actually use what I like to make it so big."

Frame said she hopes that it brings joy to visitors and that people who pass by will see themselves reflected in her work.

Des Moines summer campers create mural at Evelyn K. Davis Park

Evelyn K. Davis Park on Des Moines’ northwest side is now home to a mural designed with help from the children and teenagers who attended the city’s Parks and Recreation summer camp this year.

In a partnership between the Des Moines Art Center’s Community Access Program and the city, artists Jill Wells, Siriaco “Siricasso” Garcia and Marissa Hernandez worked with campers to create a ’90s-themed mural that focuses on community. The 200-square-foot acrylic mural, on the south wall of the maintenance facilities building, is the park’s first major artwork.

A collage heart on a blue background sits at the center of the mural, called "The Youth Have Spoken." A border surrounding the heart features common shapes painted in a ’90s-inspired color palette — a tribute to the period when the park was named: 1993.

The piece began with a question posed to about 18 campers during workshops in June: What does community mean to you?

Wells said campers brainstormed and sketched out symbols, colors, or words/responses to that question. Children included parks, recycling centers, homes, favorite pizza shops, and water scenes in their responses. Conversations also happened around LGBTQ+, Juneteenth and basketball.

One of the most common symbols was the heart, Wells said, “which I thought was not surprising but really beautiful. I feel like that tells me they have love for their community and they feel love from their community.”

After that, the three artists got to work sketching the final draft. Campers had the opportunity to come back and add color to the mural during the first half of July. The mural was completed by July 20, according to Dizzy Ransmeier, the art center's community access program manager, who added that there will be a celebration at the park for the roughly 40 campers who pitched in throughout the project.

Incorporating ideas from youth is the “truth of the world that we live in,” Wells said. “It’s a reflection of community and it’s a reflection of everyone in the community. Sometimes I think that we unknowingly kind of silo age groups and if these projects … open up and help us get away from that, then I would love for that to be happening more often.”

More: Take our walking tour of 12 Des Moines murals (and peruse our gallery of many more)

Koi fish swim upstream on an Ingersoll Avenue staircase

Des Moines-based artist duo Jordan Sandquist and Chris Sullivan are responsible for the mural on a staircase near 2300 Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines, depicting a golden koi fish swimming upstream on a staircase.

The mural is part of The Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand’s goals of bringing about more urban recreation through public art, among other practices, according to the nonprofit, which supports development of the district.

Sandquist told the Register she and Sullivan were excited by the challenge of creating art on a staircase, art that would require people to move and adjust to see the larger picture.

Though they both applied to do this piece separately, the two eventually joined and landed on the imagery of koi fish, something Sandquist has witnessed tattoo artist Sullivan do before.

Some mythology surrounding the koi fish includes a tale in which over hundreds of years, hundreds of golden koi fish attempted to swim upstream to the top of a waterfall, according to Sandquist. When one fish achieved that, it was rewarded by gods and transformed into a dragon.

“Just this idea of transcendence and growth and transformation felt like it really clicked with everything that The Avenues is trying to do for that area," Sandquist said.

The pair completed the mural in time for Art Week in June and researched what kind of paint to use for something that would not only be exposed to the elements but see foot traffic. They landed on a stain, three coats of it, to bring to life the vibrant fish.

Sandquist said she and Sullivan would have never had this opportunity without the efforts of The Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand.

“It really does take a village of people supporting public art and those ideas and wanting to bring more life to the city,” she said. “It takes all of those factors to really give us those opportunities.”

Audio Labs captures the power of music with new mural

The mural on the side of Audio Labs, a 50-year-old audio and video equipment installation business, exemplifies what it means to provide creative freedom.

The mural, at 2212 Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines, was the brainchild of Scarce Elementz, an artist collective. Des Moines-based Brandon Warner, also known as Asphate, and two other artists known as Leter91 and Limz were responsible for this mural.

“It's very rare that graffiti writers get the same just due when it comes to mural work and stuff in the city as fine artists and so I've been working over the last two years or so to try to change that and to try to create a world where on a main thoroughfare like Grand or Ingersoll or Court Avenue, you actually could see graffiti burners here and graffiti letters styles here the same way that you can in other cities,” Warner told the Register.

The left side of the mural depicts a woman whose energy and vibrations reach speaker boxes to the right, her power bursting apart the pieces of equipment.

Warner’s 20-year-old daughter, who died recently, is reflected in the mural — her likeness was used to create the image of the woman.

Energy, as explored in the mural, cannot be created or destroyed, only converted to another form, according to the law of conservation of energy, Warner said.

Warner expands on that in a personal way with the mural.

“Part of what you see when you see that wave pattern — it's going through the wall — is just, in my opinion, the hopeful or optimistic depiction of the notion of her frequency still being out there somewhere, still creating force, still having power, still moving and inspiring people and wowing people and giving somebody eye candy and something to look at and something to behold and to find beautiful,” he said.

Warner complimented Audio Labs owner Jim Nelson for allowing him and the other artists to take full control over the piece, which incorporates the most complex form of graffiti writing: wild styles or burners, as it’s called.

It also shows the quality and talent of graffiti writers right in Des Moines, talent that stands not only toe to toe with other high-level artists from bigger cities across the country, but stands above them, too.

That’s something important to Warner, who said he was proud to be from Iowa.

But Warner doesn’t want to rob anyone from their experience with the mural — or any other works — by telling people what they are seeing. Nor is he concerned about the people who don’t know the context behind the mural.

“Hopefully they still just see something that is beautiful and moving to them, and it means whatever it means to them,” Warner said.

More: Where to find 8 new sculptures and murals that went up in the Des Moines metro area

Latest DART Art Shelter comes to Ingersoll Avenue

The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority installed another art bus shelter in Des Moines, this time on Ingersoll Avenue.

It’s one of what will eventually be 50 bus shelters featuring art across Des Moines, Altoona, Ankeny, Clive and elsewhere, said Matthew Harris, business and community partnerships manager with DART, in an email to the Des Moines Register.

These bus shelters will feature art that both enhances the community and supports a positive image of public transportation, according to DART.

Mary Jones, an artist based in Indianola, is responsible for the art shelter near 2103 Ingersoll Ave. in Des Moines. She plans to feature more of her work on three more art shelters.

The artwork on Jones’ shelter depicts exaggerated images of people against a map. Jones takes long walks to envision her art, depicting both what she observes and what’s happening in her imagination at the same time, she said.

For this art shelter, Jones walked Ingersoll Avenue to the Des Moines Art Center and back on Grand Avenue. The amount of people she saw on the sidewalks gave her reason to believe Des Moines is becoming a walkable city, she said. As someone from Chicago who relied on public transportation, it was a joy to see.

It’s another reason why she pursued this art project in the first place.

“I just hope that it's a brighter moment for them because waiting for a bus is kind of downtime,” Jones said. “It can be frustrating or even kind of dull but I think the entire shelter program really brightens the streetscape, and I hope it makes it more enjoyable for people.”

Earlier this summer, DART held an unveiling of the bus art shelter. There, Jones witnessed a mom and her young children, one of whom traced with her finger the outline of a street featured on the bus shelter.

“I don't know what was going through her head, but she was interacting with the art and I thought, ‘This is great. This is what I would like to see happen,’” Jones said.

New Monsterama Arcade mural reps southside Des Moines

Everything that makes southside Des Moines great is depicted on a new mural on the building of Lucky Gal Tattoo and Piercing and Monsterama Arcade on southwest Ninth Street in Des Moines.

That’s how Chris Pruisner, owner of both the tattoo parlor and the spooky, retro-themed arcade, described it in a Facebook post. Pruisner designed the mural, which reads in block letters “Welcome to South DSM” against a black wall.

The mural was brought to life by Matt Graves and features references to Blank Park Zoo, Water Works Park and the Des Moines International Airport.

Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at PBarraza@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Where to find 6 new public art pieces in Des Moines