Just as waves crack and crash in the ocean, Callie Fold’s commissioned mural in downtown Auburn has begun to split with age.
The idea for the mural was brought to the Auburn City Council in 2008. Fold was a senior at Auburn and was fairly involved with The Boys and Girls Club. She wanted to not only leave her mark on The Plains but help others do the same.
Fold found the canvas with help from a mission-led church group, and the plan started to snowball before her eyes. Local business owners donated the supplies after Fold shared her dreams.
Her small group, a sect of the Converge Auburn ministry, banded together to make her dreams come true. Kevin Beasley, former pastor and current owner of New Leaf Consignment, said the students put together their hopes and dreams and handed it off to Mayor Bill Ham.
“Dreams Coming True” — a message settled on by the children Fold worked with. The now-faded blue wave symbolizes the flow that takes one toward their dreams.
“I noticed that there seemed to be a division of races and classes from [Northwest Auburn] to where you cross over the railroad tracks and get close to the University,” Fold said. “The mission behind the mural was from God, really. It was meant to be a symbol of unity, and it would bring people together.”
Fold gave anyone who wanted to take part in the mural an opportunity to do so. The community-wide event took place in a location Fold thought represented the aspirations of the mural.
Handprints of many colors and other later additions, such as vandalized butt-cheek prints, an Aubie pawprint and a scribbled scripture in silver ink, move up with the wave. At its crest two handprints transform into a bird that flies away.
A dream coming to fruition.
“It was bigger than a painting,” Fold said. “It had a dream and a heart behind it.”
Beasley said along with the more prominent names, many members of the community stopped by that day to lend a hand for a second before continuing on their way.
The mural, from the point of Fold conceiving the idea, was completed in two months and came together with the help of a majority of college-aged and younger students.
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The buildings have been standing since 1928 and 1929. Julie McGowin,
McGowin recently sold the building for the recently proposed downtown development.
“It would be a whole lot easier to tear them down and start over,” McGowin said. “There is a part of me that hates saying that, but they are old.”
McGowin has photos of her sons, then young children, placing their handprints on the wall. The sale was bittersweet, but McGowin stands behind her reasoning and the future plans for
“It is sad to see some things going down in downtown Auburn, however, we are glad to see the city progress, and I am familiar with the development, and I think it is going to be a wonderful development,” Beasley said. “It is a bittersweet thing. Change is always bittersweet.”
McGowin said not everyone loved the waves, wondering, “why in the world were waves painted on the side of a bike shop in downtown Auburn?”
She said the message and those who made it happen sold the mural at the time of its founding.
As debate stirs concerning the fate of the building, the wall stands and weathers away. The colors have become drastically lighter over time, losing the sharp, drastic contrast of the orange sky and blue waves.
Fold said she knew the mural would not stand the test of time, as cities do change, but she is thankful it stayed put for the time it did. Fold believes the memory for those who were
“Sometimes we have to let go of things we love to move in the next direction,” Beasley said.
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