There’s a new mural blooming over First Street in Rogers. Landscaping and other final details were underway at the First Street Flats in downtown Rogers last week. Included in those finishing touches: a three-story-high floral mural created by Francisco Diaz Scotto, who signs his work as Pastel.
The mural is a floral arrangement spreading across the south facade of the residential structure. Pastel says he’s inspired by our collective memories of flowers we may have seen inside our ancestors’ homes.
“What grandma’s place is, or our parents’ place — like in the middle of the table — looks like. So it’s like, just bring this out and put some popping colors to those.”
Popping colors include shades of red, purple, and pink — a pink, in fact, that seems to match a nearby sign identifying this as Building 3 of the housing development. If it does match, Pastel says that’s not completely intentional, but more sort of artistic osmosis.
“In my case, I spent like 10 hours per day painting. There’s so much in contact with colors and consciousness. So then there is the pink, maybe coming back, and then some green of the plants and just, I don’t know, turn to an abstract decision.”
This is the second mural in Arkansas for Argentina-born Pastel. He created the work Empty at 1100 Garrison in Fort Smith as part of the first Unexpected festival in 2016.
This mural is a continuation also of a series of similar works facilitated by Specialized Real Estate Group at their properties. Hope Haynes with Specialized says the murals are an extra element of the buildings — extra, but very beneficial.
“I think for us, what we are ultimately trying to do is create a meaningful neighborhood. And for us, a vital part of that is connection. And so that, to us, that’s connection between the neighbors, connection with nature and then connection with the community at large.”
The first mural in that series, created at South Yard in Fayetteville by Fayetteville-based artist Olivia Trimble, was a bold, colorful work that read Love Your Neighbor. Created during the height of the pandemic,
“It was a time where we really felt like putting out that message. It was timely. It also was really core to who we are as a company and the kind of neighborhoods we’re trying to build. And so we’ve continued it at several of our other projects. And it made a lot of sense for this one. But this one, we wanted to do a slightly different version. And so we did a Spanish-speaking language version.”
The words “ama a tu prójima” accompany this new floral mural in Rogers.
On the day we visited last week, Pastel was jumping on the boom lift just hours before his flight to leave the next day. He says for a muralist, deadlines are part of any big project and can be a good thing.
“Could be and could not. Depends on that case because the weather conditions are okay. Sometimes it’s too rainy — that’s the only problem we have with painting murals is the rain. But yeah, it’s good. It’s good to be a little bit under pressure.”
This new mural was completed in less than a week’s time. But that week was one of the hottest of the year. Pastel says he’s not unfamiliar with prepping for a long day’s work in the summer sun.
“Well, at first, have a lot of coffee and water. And then, because of the August summer season, trying to stay away from the hottest time and then using an umbrella to protect my soul.”
He says to help with the day he listens to music all day long, starting maybe with Argentinian folk music, and later in the day, when he may need an energy boost, he switches to French rap.
The newest mural in Rogers can be seen at 401 North First Street at First Street Flats.
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