The owner of Ariana Lee Creative LLC was commissioned to design a mural at the shopping center located at 1009 Cheek-Sparger Road.
She started in July but was delayed due to permitting issues with the city. Once that hurdle was cleared, she said she restarted on Nov. 1 and finished on Nov. 17.
The mural, on the outside wall of Dance Axiom, reads "Welcome to Colleyville, Texas."
The background
Tara Village Shopping Center changed owners in March. Structure Commercial Head of Leasing Jake Burns said the plan was to revamp the center.
“The new owners wanted the mural to be the kickoff of revitalizing Tara Village into a vibrant destination in Colleyville where residents can eat, play, shop and create memories with families and friends,” Burns said.
A gazebo within the shopping center is a popular area for photos and the grass near it was replaced with synthetic turf, Burns said. Another possibility is having music events in the future, he added.
Burns said the mural adds to the shopping center, providing another draw. He pinpointed Anna’s Mexican Grill and the soon-to-open Cheeky Monkey as anchor tenants that will help the center grow.
“We want places you can go and hang out,” Burns said. “We think a shopping center can be more than a place where you get your dry cleaning. We believe it has the ability to not be such a transactional retail center but a place to linger, and the mural is spearheading that theory.”
The inspiration
Chariton said she came up with some ideas and shared them with the development company to get feedback. She said her initial design was based on the Colleyville city logo, but she gave it a few twists.
“It gave an older-town feel and I wanted to give it a little bit more color,” she said.
She added bluebonnets and the gazebo in the shopping center to her mural. The wall was 48 feet by 13 feet and her painting takes up 320 square feet, she said.
What they’re saying
“It feels really exciting and nice to do a community project,” Chariton said. “To see the way it impacts people’s everyday life is exciting and to hear them say it makes them smile, that is the biggest compliment I can get.”
