By Scott D. Johnston

Associated Arts of Ocean Shores (AAOS) has completed its second of 20 large scale local murals, this one painted on three garage doors next to the Moby Dick restaurant at 788 Pt. Brown Ave. NE. The group is asking the community to join their effort, with a message of how “ridiculously cheap” it is to help local artists create big, spectacular and already proven pieces of popular public art.

“Literally, a few hundred bucks for paint and supplies and a few lunches, and we’ve got another big mural in Ocean Shores,” enthused Ed Schroll, president of the 45-year-old non-profit organization that includes in its 130 members area artists as well as about 25 local businesses, plus individual supporting members.

“Our goal is 20 murals. We realize that’s not all going to happen this year, but some of it already is.”

And 20 murals scattered through town, “that’s something everyone would enjoy, and especially for our visitors,” it would create “a lot of really cool places where they’ll have their smart phones out, taking pictures and selfies to send to everybody they know, about what a great time they’re having here in Ocean Shores!”

Schroll said local artists including project leader Jim Beauvais, Joan Lohr and Michael Bedford, painted the mural over about a month, during which they attracted a lot of attention: “We had people taking pictures all the time … more than a dozen lined up several times,” while the artists were at work. He also noted that, once a mural is done, it’s an attraction and marketing tool that basically requires no further maintenance or support. He said if, years from now, some of the murals needed a touch-up, he’s sure AAOS artists would simply rise up, brushes in hand, to preserve the community’s art.

Schroll said Ford Wilgus and Donny Bishop with Moby Dick “helped facilitate this project from the beginning” as they first suggested the project to AAOS last summer, and ultimately helped fund it. In the meantime, AAOS did the first mural last September on a wall of the small building that houses the city-owned radio station, KOSW 91.3FM, at 189 Ocean Lake Way.

“People can participate in this project by painting it, if they know how, or by helping fund it,” he said. Business memberships in AAOS for $35 annually, and getting materials donated by local businesses, are means of support as well as $20 individual AAOS memberships. Schroll said AAOS has set up a separate fund for mural project donations and more information is available online at www.associatedarts.org. People can email him directly at ewschroll@gmail.com.

In the hopefully not-so-long term, Schroll said his group would love to do one or more murals at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, something he said the city would happily accept but hasn’t offered to fund.

For something of that scale, he said donations totaling “a couple thousand dollars could make that real, and a beautiful centerpiece for the project.”