{"id":22645,"date":"2025-04-18T00:12:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T00:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-boring-to-roaring-mancos-lions-club-pavilion-joins-the-art-scene\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:15:28","slug":"from-boring-to-roaring-mancos-lions-club-pavilion-joins-the-art-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-boring-to-roaring-mancos-lions-club-pavilion-joins-the-art-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"From boring to roaring: Mancos Lions Club pavilion joins the art scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dai
Dai Salwen paints osha, also known as bear root, onto their mural on the base of the Boyle Park pavilion in Mancos. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The base of a 43-year-old pavilion in Mancos\u2019s Boyle Park may seem like an unlikely canvas for a mural, but local artist Dai Salwen was up for the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real headscratcher,\u201d Salwen said. \u201cBut head scratchers often create the best things \u2026 I was forced to be more creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a little over a week now, Salwen has been making their way around the concrete base of the pavilion, chalking up rough sketches of different flora and fauna to then paint over.<\/p>\n

With 12 years of experience as a wilderness guide under their belt, Salwen started the mural by \u201cmaking a list of my favorite friends and environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

They landed on river, mountain and desert ecosystems.<\/p>\n

And as you walk around the pavilion, starting at its east-facing side and walking clockwise, the art reflects those respective environments.<\/p>\n

Once Salwen divided the 80-foot-long stretch that is the base of the pavilion into those three ecosystems, they brainstormed appropriate flora and fauna and will eventually add identifying names and fun facts to make the mural interactive.<\/p>\n

\"The
The mountain ecosystem of Dai Salwen\u2019s mural in Boyle Park coming to life. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s designed to be appealing to kids,\u201d said Chelsea Lunders, the executive director of the Mancos Creative District, the nonprofit that worked with the town to make the project possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s great for kids, since it\u2019s at the park at eye level,\u201d said Lunders.<\/p>\n

Salwen hopes kids and adults will find it \u201caesthetically pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people walk away with excitement and connection to the wild ones,\u201d said Salwen.<\/p>\n

And new knowledge, too, from genuine engagement and an excitement to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a kid sees a crow, they\u2019ll realize, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s actually a raven,\u2019 and here\u2019s a cool fact about a raven,\u201d said Salwen.<\/p>\n

The underlying hope, then, is for \u201cgreater knowing and connection to beings we\u2019re surrounded by here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lunders said that she\u2019s \u201cexcited about the timing\u201d of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe local flora and fauna are coming to life as spring comes to life,\u201d said Lunders.<\/p>\n

In addition to local \u201cwild ones,\u201c beside the ramp leading into the pavilion, Salwen painted the Mancos Valley Lions Club logo \u2013 it\u2019s their pavilion, after all.<\/p>\n

Valerie Hobson, the secretary at the Lions Club, explained how it was founded in 1982.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat year, they built the pavilion in Boyle Park. It was one of the first things they did,\u201d said Hobson.<\/p>\n

To illustrate \u2013 quite literally \u2013 what the Lions Club does, Salwen incorporated service dogs and glasses into the mural, beside their logo.<\/p>\n

\"Local
Local artist Dai Salwen incorporated the Lions Club International logo, as well as the Mancos Valley Lions Club logo, into their mural in Boyle Park, since the local lions club owns the pavilion. (Dai Salwen\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A cornerstone mission of Lions Club International is to be \u201cknights of the blind in the crusade against darkness,\u201d as Helen Keller challenged the group when she attended a convention in 1925, according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur local Lions Club, among other things, does sight testing for kids,\u201d said Hobson.<\/p>\n

For preschool to second graders, the Lions Club goes in and takes photos of their eyes, as \u201cit can detect eye problems that are easily corrected when kids are young,\u201d said Hobson.<\/p>\n

It can also tell whether they need glasses, which the Lions Club can provide.<\/p>\n

The service dog comes in, since the lions club supports Leader Dogs for the Blind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll sure look a lot nicer than the peeling paint,\u201d said Hobson.<\/p>\n

Beneath the mural, to smooth over what little remains of the red paint, Salwen said they\u2019ll paint it the same color as the concrete peeking through so it will \u201cwear well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salwen said they\u2019re glad the pavilion in Boyle Park, which is a central space for community gatherings like Burro Fest \u2013 it\u2019s \u201cnow a place of beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, public art is the essence of how I want to share my gift,\u201d Salwen said. \u201cPublic art means access to the beauty, excitement and expression for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dai Salwen is based in Mancos and is reachable for private murals, other projects and \u201ccuriosities\u201d at their website, practiceofhonoring.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

chipping base is now alive with local flora and fauna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,83,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77796,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22645\/revisions\/77796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22645"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}