Painting as a Community — The Woodlands’ Grand 50th Anniversary Mural Brings People Together to Create

Local artists Marlo Saucedo and Amy Malkan are creating a grand mural to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Woodlands. But not alone. This art project is pulling in the community. The official unveiling of the mural is set for October 17 at 11 am, two days before the actual 50th anniversary of this pioneering master planned community. But a Community Paint Day held last weekend is helping to set the stage for the big reveal while kicking off the 50th anniversary celebrations in earnest.

Artists Saucedo and Malkan prepped the mural site, just behind the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on The Waterway, and created the outline for community members to color in with paint. Saucedo and Malkan were on hand, providing paint tubs and brushes to anyone who wanted to take a turn making their mark on The Woodlands. Many Conroe ISD students and faculty showed, including instructors from eight different campuses and 23 students.

“It’s been an exciting opportunity for the students, because they’re putting their mark on the township that will stay there for a long time,” Conroe ISD fine arts specialist Lisa Davis says. “Also, the teachers are very excited to be able to work right beside their kids in doing this project.”

This 50th anniversary mural is bringing teachers and their students together.

“We just like to encourage them to make different things, get out and see all the different aspects of art. Not just what we do in the classroom,” Grand Oaks High School teacher Dandridge Reed says. “And so something like this is really exciting. They can come and see their hand at work, and then get to see it for years.

“To walk by and have both the memories of creation and to have that pride of like, ‘I helped with this.’ ”

Going Big In The Woodlands

Artists Amy Malkan and Marlo Saucedo collaborated on the design submitted to the committee.

“We decided to commemorate the beauty of The Woodlands through nature,” Malkan tells PaperCity The Woodlands. “And so we have specific elements that you would find here in The Woodlands. We have the monarch butterfly. We have hibiscus. We have the hummingbird. We have the koi fish.”

For the paint day, the team prepped the site and laid out the design on the wall.

Malkan got introduced to murals in 2016 and fell in love with painting big.

“I’m always on the quest of the bigger wall, the biggest wall,” she says. “I love integrating community paint days like this because there’s so much benefit with young adults and young people being a part of this. It teaches them to get outside their comfort zone. It teaches them perfectionism is not real.

“It’s OK to make mistakes. It’s part of the journey of self confidence. They realize, ‘Wow, if I can do this like, what else can I do that I was shortchanging myself on?’ ”

While Malkan believes she has “always” been an artist, she attributes her success to her high school art teacher — Alief Taylor High School’s Joni Maniatis.

“In high school, she saw something in me that she wanted to invest in,” Malkan says. “She spent money, time and energy with me after school, introduced me to soldering, clay art, sculpture — everything — and put me into competitions. Really invested into my artistic journey.”

Howard Hughes’ Kim Phillips and Lorrie Parise, along with Visit The Woodlands’ Nick Wolda were on hand to lend their talent to the mural as well, and each took a turn painting, leaving their permanent mark on public art in The Woodlands.

The value of public art is what motivated College Park High School student Nico Ray to be part of the community paint day.

“It’s really important to have public art,” Ray says.  Ray is a longtime resident of The Woodlands. The child of an art teacher, she sees value in public art. Her favorite art piece in The Woodlands is the Lily Pad art bench.

Malkan and Saucedo will add shadows and highlights to the base layer and add in the paisley background — in Saucedo’s word art the fashion — and complete the mural this weekend.

The 50th anniversary mural’s unveiling is set to take place at 11 am on Thursday, October 17.  The mural can be found on The Waterway, between The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and 1 Riva Row.