Photos by Will Davison

It’s always good to have inspiration.

Both the gardeners and their sprouts have something to drive them, now that a mural of oversized produce and flowers has taken over the supply shed near the Community Gardens at Central Park.

“It’s almost like they are trying to blow up and come into the world,” artist Alma Juarez explained. “I felt that people that go the garden should related to what they’re going to see on the shed. What better way than to see the things they grow?”

Juarez, who is a member of The ARTree, designed the mural and is coordinating the cooperative effort with the Santa Clarita Artists’ Association, represented by Production coordinator Laurie Finkelstein.

Volunteer artists from both groups have come in to help fill in the big sections of color, leaving the details to Juarez and Finkelstein.

The colorful creation features vegetables, fruits and flowers grown in California, including artichokes, cucumbers, oranges, eggplant, bell peppers, carrots, strawberries, lettuce, beets, sunflowers, and of course, poppies.

Work on the mural began August 15 and is expected to conclude this week. The painters worked in the late afternoon, to avoid the scorching midday heat.

This is the fourth mural partnership project by The ARTree, a non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance art education for children in the Santa Clarita Valley. The garden project was financed by the Community Gardens group, who paid for supplies and is making a donation to each group as a way of saying ‘thanks’ for their efforts.

Juarez said that the crops being nurtured in the garden look pretty healthy and she hopes that the artwork will inspire them.

The mural is painted on a side of the shed that cannot be seen by passing traffic on Bouquet Canyon Road, but it in full view of the park’s main parking lot.