A Dunedin mural has caused some onlookers to reminisce and another to recoil in apprehension.
Stickum artists Guy Howard-Smith and Aroha Novak said they had used 25 litres of paint on the 20sq m Reaching for the Stars Caversham mural.
Mr Howard-Smith said the mural, on the side of Fairway Takeaways, in South Rd, was finished yesterday.
The girl reaching for the star was Ms Novak's 6-year-old daughter Carmela Milner-Novak, who was apprehensive after first seeing the mural.
''She was shy about being so large on a wall, she said, `I like it, but I don't want to be too famous'.''
Mr Howard-Smith said a 95-year-old woman stopped and reminisced about the former Caversham business premises in the mural, including a Caversham butchery and former post office.
Several young people stopped to ask about the Caversham history included in the mural.
''The whole point of this was to include the community and it seems to be doing just that. People are really interested,'' Mr Howard-Smith said.
The artists thanked the Caversham Baptist Community Trust for paying for the wall preparation and Bramwell Scaffolding for supplying scaffolding, Resene for giving paint, Presbyterian Support Otago for commissioning the original drawings, Flax Cafe for free coffee and Dunedin City Council's Creative Communities Fund grant, which paid the artists.
Ms Novak said Stickum, an artist's co-operative, was keen to start another mural in Dunedin, which would be based on the Maori mythology of the Saddle Hill taniwha eating land to create Otago Harbour.
The co-operative was looking for sponsors and a wall.
shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz#wmural
