Painting The Town: New Mural Brightens Up Downtown Bethesda

BETHESDA, MD — Downtown Bethesda is about to get a little more colorful.

The Bethesda Urban Partnership said Monday that it has selected Megan Lewis, a Baltimore-based artist, to paint a mural on the Rugby Garage at 8216 Woodmont Ave. Her mural is the latest installment of Bethesda's "Paint the Town" initiative, which aims to promote public art murals in the downtown area.

"I usually draw a lot of faces — I love faces," Lewis, 31, said in an interview with Patch. "But I always want to grow and evolve as an artist. This project was something different for me. And I knew I couldn't just do faces."

"I wanted it to be kind of mysterious," she added. "Where are they going? How are they getting there?"

Lewis was chosen from a pool of 50 artists from the D.C. metro area who were asked to submit a mock-up of a transportation-themed mural. Lewis' concept features colorfully drawn people walking, biking, riding scooters, and skateboarding to their destinations.

While this mural veers from her signature work, it still holds true to what she loves: bright colors.

"I love bright colors. That will always stay the same, for the most part," she said. "I am a very expressive person. And my strongest form of communication is visual."

Lewis says she has been drawing all her life, but only got into painting murals in 2015. In those five years, the artist has partnered with the Baltimore Orioles, Target, LIFEWTR, the University of Maryland Medical System, Doritos, and the Maryland Transportation Authority's Baltimore Metro subway system.

Her mural "Lady Liberty Please Know Thy Self" made national news when singer Alicia Keys visited Baltimore for an A&E Network show called "Shining a Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America."

It's works like these, plus Lewis' creative and colorful mock-up, that got her hired in downtown Bethesda, said Stephanie Coppula, director of marketing and communications for BUP.

The mural is the latest commissioned through a partnership between BUP, the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, and the county's transportation department.

According to Lewis, this is her biggest mural to date.

It will encompass the front and right-hand side of the public parking garage on Woodmont Avenue. One side of the mural is 28 feet high and 86 feet wide. The other side is divided into two sections: one is six feet tall and the other is seven feet tall.

Before starting, Lewis took a picture of the mural, jumped into Adobe Photoshop, and tried to fit her composition onto the photo. After a day of fiddling, she added color, which she said took a couple hours.

Then it was time to paint.

At nightfall, Lewis and her assistant Jarrell Dockett fired up the projector and outlined the mural using spray paint.

In a little under a week, the duo has finished one wall. The other section, she estimates, will be done in the coming days.

"It's really impressive to see their stamina," Coppula said.

A mural that size has already attracted the attention of passersby and residents living in a nearby complex.

"We made quite a few friends. Some people call us by name, actually," she recalled, adding that one neighbor said the mural has cheered her up during the coronavirus pandemic.

"The last five months, she didn't have much to be happy about. But this right here makes her happy," Lewis said. "(It's) amazing — no greater compliment. It's something that I created that's (doing) what it's meant to do."