A spray of color in downtown Cd'A
The sun began to set, casting shadows along the buildings lining the alley. At first, it was quiet, boring almost; the walls were bare and there wasn’t anyone in sight. But the shadows led farther down the alley, and as the hiss of spray cans became audible, the shadows were replaced by a bright, colorful mural and one man with paint coating his arms.
An artist from Spokane brightened up a small corner of downtown Coeur d’Alene this week in an alley behind two local businesses. His goal: To create a more welcoming atmosphere by painting vibrant murals on their walls.
Daniel Lopez began painting the walls behind Estate Properties and Coeur d’Alene Fresh last Saturday. The mural took him five days to complete and extends along two buildings.
Lopez moved to Spokane four years ago from Ventura County, California. He’s always been interested in art, but it wasn’t until he came to Spokane that he found he wanted to paint murals.
“I came here starting from scratch; I opened up my first bank account and then got a little one-bedroom,” Lopez said. “I saw someone painting a big mural and I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I could do that.’”
Lopez taught himself a concept called “can control,” which takes into account the speed, angles and pressure of spray paint.
“I know life is the best art teacher. It can teach you more than people can. If you’re self-motivated with anything, you can learn anything,” Lopez said.
Marla McWilliams-Lopez — no relation to the artist — commissioned Lopez to paint the mural so she could open up the back of Coeur d’Alene Fresh as an outdoor seating area. McWilliams-Lopez and her daughter-in-law developed the design for the mural.
“I saw his work, what he did, and it was amazing. I wanted something that was community oriented, so my daughter-in-law designed this [mural] and then we presented it to Daniel,” McWilliams-Lopez said.
McWilliams-Lopez contacted Daniel about three weeks prior to when he began painting last Saturday. It wasn’t easy, but McWilliams-Lopez knew she wanted him to be the one to paint the mural.
“It took me a while to find him,” she said. “He didn’t have a good presence and I had to search, search, search. I finally found him on Facebook and reached out to him that way.”
Lopez is open to job inquiries; some of his work can be seen on his Instagram account, @godffiti and he is available at (509) 808-6202.