Dallas

Art Teacher Paints Mural to Fulfill Late South Dallas Resident's Wish

Curtis Ferguson and his students are painting a 250 foot work called “A Day in the Park”

It’s been nearly five years in the making, but a Dallas Carter High School art teacher says he will finish a mural that a late resident dreamt of seeing come to life.

Curtis Ferguson and his students are painting a 250 foot work called “A Day in the Park” that shows multicultural people and their pets enjoying a day outside together.

Though it is Ferguson’s design, the painting was actually the vision of two South Dallas residents of 40 years that the teacher simply knows as Mr. and Mrs. Gurson.

Ferguson said the Gursons contacted him in 2011 after he and his students had completed another mural. The couple wanted to see a similar creation on an eyesore retainer wall in the 6200 block of South Polk; something to promote unity in their neighborhood and get rid of a popular graffiti spot.

Ferguson and the Gursons began writing grant proposals, but it took several years to make the project come true.

By the time it did start though, life happened.

Mr. Gurson died in 2014, and a short time later his wife began developing dementia and was moved into care elsewhere.

Ferguson said he was determined to complete the couple’s vision, so setting out to work along South Polk, he and students have started bringing the painting to life and hope to complete it sometime in May.

On Saturday, the City of Dallas pitched in to help them out by coning off a section of the street to allow them to work.

Ferguson has made one edit to his design: starting to paint the likeness of the Gurson’s right in the center of the mural to watch over the serene scene; forever a part of the neighborhood they loved.

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