CUMBERLAND, Ind. — Koda Witsken, an artist and Hoosier native, was living in Los Angeles when she saw a posting in Indiana for a muralist.
"The town of Cumberland put out basically a call out for artists," she said. "I was living in LA at the time and I got the project and actually moved home for this project."
The mural is being painted in an underpass along Buck Creek Trail. It's a place many wouldn't expect to find art.
"It's really a treat to put something beautiful where people would expect literally the opposite," Witsken said.
The mural, funded by the town of Cumberland, has a lot of community input.
"We had, gosh, three of four stakeholder meetings where the people of Cumberland said what they love about Cumberland and we put that in," she said. "So, you'll see the German Church with the stain glass windows that everybody loves, there's obviously a lot of sunflowers for all the sunflowers, and lightning bugs for the state bug of Indiana."
Once the mural is done, they plan to coat it with a high-power sealant so if it is graffitied, they can just power wash it off.
Witsken says she hopes the mural becomes a source of comfort and relaxation for people.
"I hope when people walk through this tunnel that it's a bit of an out-of-world experience, with even five seconds to forget all of the stress and be like, 'You know what, this is beautiful, it's going to be OK, let's have a positive day and we can do this together'," Witsken said.
The mural will be completed by early May.
Witsken owns a mural business here in Indiana. You can view more of her work on her website here.