Artist Yulia Avgustinovich is pictured with a recent mural she created in Lakewood.
She will be painting a street mural on Sept. 10 and 11 on Clinton St. in Aurora to create a grand entry to the Stanley Marketplace, including the Cherry Arts Festival the following weekend.
The public is invited to participate in the painting project. RSVP to sign up for a volunteer shift.

“Street art” takes on a new meaning as two blocks of asphalt in Aurora become the canvas for a large-scale mural. Artist Yulia Avgustinovich is painting the public art piece—a design that represents aspects of Aurora’s past and future—on Clinton St. between Montview Blvd. and 23rd Ave. The newly painted street will guide visitors to the new Stanley Marketplace, opening this fall.

Commissioned by the City of Aurora, Avgustinovich is creating the approximately 40,000-square-foot mural with the help of volunteers. The project began the last weekend of August and will be completed Sept. 10 and 11.

The mural’s design incorporates flowers, the trolley trailer permanently housed at the Aurora History Museum, and several flying machines in honor of the Stanley building’s history as an aviation manufacturing facility. “The flying machines are abstract and retro,” Avgustinovich said. “Decorative elements also include cogwheels and other parts because the Stanley made different parts for airplanes. The flowers are Rocky Mountain columbines, Colorado’s state flower.”

A muralist for 10 years, Avgustinovich creates both indoor and outdoor art. This is her first public art painted directly onto a street. She uses heavy paint intended for marking traffic lines on roads. “It’s a latex paint that is non-toxic and anti-skid, so it’s not slippery when wet. It comes in white, yellow, blue and red, which we mix to make more colors.”

Avgustinovich sketches the design onto the street and volunteers paint it. She said the mural should last for at least a year.

The City of Aurora is recruiting volunteers to help with the project on Sept. 10 and 11, in three shifts between 9am and 4pm. “We’ve had a lot of interest, with about 50 people helping the first weekend. But we need more volunteers for the 10th and 11th,” said Avgustinovich.

The painter is from Belarus, just south of Russia. Avgustinovich studied classical painting in Minsk, Belarus, before continuing her study of public art in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since moving to Denver last year, she has completed several public murals, as well as inside murals for private homes.

Those interested in volunteering should contact Peg Alt, community development outreach specialist with Aurora’s Neighborhood Services Department, palt@auroragov.org.

The street mural will be unveiled at the CherryArts Festival at Stanley on Sept. 16, 17 and 18. See cherryartsstanley.org for details.

To see Yulia Avgustinovich’s work, go to www.Yulia-Art.com.