SEE THE MURAL DESIGNED TO BRING TOURISTS TO CEDAR PARK
Thousands of people CEDAR PARK — have posed under the mural that says “I love you so much” in Austin. Now some Cedar Park hotel owners want to give their city its turn at attracting attention from residents and tourists.
Ruth Denman and her husband, Doug Denman, the owners and operators of Springhill Suites by Marriott Austin Cedar Park, received an $11,200 grant from the city of Cedar Park for a mural that Dallas artist Travis McCann painted last week on a wall outside the hotel at 1110 Discovery Blvd.
It features a longhorn with a Texas flag painted on its body standing in a field of bluebonnets under a sunset. The words “Treat others as you want to be treated” are written across the top of the mural, along with the hashtag #goldenrule.
The message and the hashtag tie into the Marriott Hotel chain’s “golden rule” marketing campaign that promotes “treating others like we’d like to be treated,” according to its website.
The 580-square-foot mural overlooks part of the Cedar Park Town Center hike-and-bike trail and pond. “We see it as a visual destination for Cedar Park,” said Doug Denman.
“We would love for people to engage with it and come out and take a picture in front of it,” said Ruth Denman. She said she and her husband wanted the message on the mural to be positive. “Everybody likes kindness,” she said.
The money from the city came from part of the town’s hotel occupancy tax, which also has paid for art projects such as the Veterans Memorial military sculptures at Veterans Memorial Park, including the World War I, World War II and Korean war statues, said Jennie Huerta, a city spokeswoman.
City Council Member Mel Kirkland said the city’s tourism board supported the idea, starting several years ago, for the city to work with businesses to put up murals.
“It’s one of those enhancements when tourists come to town it
gives them one more point of interest,” he said. “Everybody is always talking about artwork done in Austin . ... We are smaller and a little younger, and we are getting there.”
The City Council approved the $11,200 grant for the artwork at its meeting June 14.
Doug Denman said he and his wife also have paid about $8,000 for landscaping and lighting for the mural.
McCann — an artist who has created murals in Austin, Dallas, San Marcos and the West African nation of Ghana — said he spent more than 30 hours and four days painting the mural, which he estimated was about 12 feet tall and 42 feet wide.