Here, you CAN draw on the walls

COEUR d'ALENE — In a corner of the Kroc Center known as "The Zone," several teens and ‘tweens in white painting masks waited their turns last week to add spray paint to a new mural.

Emma Kent, 14, of Hayden, was handed a can of blue paint, which she used to carefully spray some background on the wall near a partially completed image of Nintendo hero Super Mario.

"I feel like it’s really cool," she said. “I really think it’s awesome because I really want to go into graphic design when I’m older."

The mural in "The Zone" was conducted as a partnership between the Kroc Center, ArtCoLab and Jerm Designs to introduce members of the Kroc's Teen Creative Arts Club to the artistic side of graffiti. During the three-day project that spanned three weeks, the youths decided on the mural design, assisted with the outlining process and tried their hand at being graffiti artists.

The mural includes Super Mario and fellow video game characters Pikachu and Pac-Man. The idea was based on the popular "Super Smash Bros." video game. The concept is fitting as "The Zone" is home to billiards, gaming consoles, TVs and other forms of entertainment for youths hanging out at the Kroc Center.

While many of the roughly 15 present arts club members had never worked with spray paint, Emma said she was familiar with it as a medium.

"I’ve always kind of known about graffiti in the art sense," she said. "My mother actually took a class when she was younger that taught her graffiti because they would always do projects where they would graffiti one part of their town and make something really pretty."

ArtCoLab owner Scott Lakey and his partner, Jeremy Deming, served as mentors for the young painters and gave them pointers as they worked together.

"It's awesome; I wish we could teach more of it," Lakey said. "There's so many negative things about (graffiti) that we want to bring the positive. Nowadays, it's evolved from the illegal side to murals, community projects. We try to educate people on how to use the paint. It's more of a fine art. The thing is, spray paint, anyone can use it. It's the type of medium that anyone can learn quickly and do big things."

Kroc program manager Katie Schmeer said the mural was an amazing opportunity for the kids to work with local professionals and learn about their trade.

"This project with ArtCoLab is an example of our community businesses donating their time to share their talents with our youth," she said. "To not only provide them a creative outlet, but to also hopefully spark a passion in our youth that they will carry with them into their future."