(La Porte, IN) - A new mural expected to be finished soon in LaPorte seems to be grabbing the attention of a lot of people impressed by the work.

 

Holly Swank of LaPorte said she’s walked past the mural every day while going to her job at nearby Indiana Deli since it started going up Monday.

           

Swank said it’s been kind of exciting to see the mural taking shape.

 

“It’s beautiful.  It’s bright.  I guess it makes my walk into work a little bit brighter,” she said.

 

The mural is on the side of the LaPorte County Public Library Exchange. The exchange is inside a slightly more than century old building once home to what’s still often referred to as “The Telephone Co.” at 807 Indiana Ave.

 

For decades, the three story structure housed switchboard operators manually connecting people on telephone calls until dial up phones forced the company out of business.

 

The building was purchased and renovated by the library, which opened it across the street from its main branch in 2020.

 

The facility offers for public use the latest in technology such as 3-D printers, laser cutters along with other things like a wood lathe and studios for recording podcasts and videos.

 

There’s also space for people to do their own knitting and sewing.

 

Assistant Library Director Toni Kester-Bulger said the idea behind the mural was to have something that sort of captures the history of the building and work representing the future happening there now.

 

Kester-Bulger said the mural for greeting people coming to the exchange was planned since the grand opening but came to reality with a grant from the Health Foundation of LaPorte.

 

“What a better way to welcome the community and kind of reflect the creativity that’s going on inside,” she said.

 

The muralist is Alex Allen using strictly a special kind of spray paint of various colors from California and frog tape for creating the straight lines in the abstract image.

 

“I kind of just wanted the viewer to feel joy, warmth and just, hopefully, inspired going into this building,” she said.

 

Allen said the prism in the middle of the mural is her way of showing the building now has a place in the future.

 

“I wanted to kind of make you feel like you’re going into a different world,” she said.

 

Allen, 30, is a lifelong resident of South Bend with about 180 murals under her belt mostly in northern Indiana.

 

She has gone to places as far away as Pennsylvania and Montana with her talent since becoming a full-time muralist nearly six years ago.

 

Allen said she always had a knack for artwork but after graduating from high school made a living as a traditional house painter. Eventually, she couldn’t ignore a growing desire to become more artistic with paint and, perhaps, meet here true calling.

 

Aside from a few classes, Allen said she taught herself.

 

“I think I kind of always knew.  One day you just wake up and say now it’s time,” she said.

 

Allen said she hopes to be finished with the mural by late in the afternoon on Saturday.

 

Kester-Bulger said a mural celebration is scheduled October 4 in the outdoor Wifi garden at the main library branch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 

 

She said people coming can check out the mural, meet Allen and have some refreshments.

 

“I think it’s just remarkable what she’s been able to do,” she said