‘Within these walls’
Rockmart artist completes youth sports mural in city gym
Images of children enjoying sports and exhibiting good sportsmanship now greets visitors to Rockmart’s recreation gym thanks to the talent of a local artist.
Rockmart’s Susan Waters recently completed the large mural in the entranceway to the city gymnasium, which was originally the Rockmart High School gymnasium for several years before a new campus was built on Cartersville Highway.
Among the scenes portrayed on the 10-foot-by-24-foot space across from the main entrance are children participating in several of the activities offered by the Rockmart Recreation Department, including football, basketball, softball, cheerleading, and soccer.
Other areas of the mural include special moments, such as a football player extending a hand to help up an opposing player, and a father lifting up his baby so it can put a basketball in a hoop.
The center of the mural displays a saying framed by a football goal post: “Within these walls grow our greatest natural resources: Our Children.”
It took Waters 14 days to complete the mural, starting from a sketch on paper and then sketching it onto the wall, adding more figures than initially designed after realizing the size of the canvas.
Rockmart Recreation Director Kevin Wigley said he wanted to have a mural in the front lobby of the gym to add something to the entranceway and have a way to both promote the recreation program and its mission to nurture the youth of the community.
“We can’t thank Susan enough for the job that she has done,” Wigley said. “She kept adding more stuff as she went along and went above and beyond.”
Waters continues to be a prominent local artist in several mediums and consistently exhibits her work in galleries and museums in the area and around the state.
She won Best in Show for her oil painting “Tapestries” at the Rockmart Cultural Arts Center’s 2023 Juried Art exhibit currently on display in the RCAC Gallery and has her work for sale in the RCAC Gift Shop.