Downtown Frederick has another piece of public art. A mural entitled "Frederick County Arts Rising" was unveiled last Friday. It's located in front of the Cultural Arts Center on West Patrick Street, across from the Weinberg Center.

"The idea was to create a mural that was about the future about the future of Frederick," says Anthony Owens, one of the artists. "There are four individuals, terrific portraits, done by my partner in art, Jack Pabis, which represent  the future of the art world in Frederick."

Owens says one of those individuals is himself, and his son, Evan, who plays in a lot of pubs in the area. There's also Joey Gillette, who works in the theater, and a ballerina name Catherine. He says it's about eight feet tall, and about 15-feet wide.

Owens says the mural is inside of a window display which can be seen during the day. But, he says, Acting Arts Council Director Susie Miller plans to illuminate the mural so that it can be seen at night. "At night with the spotlights and the floodlights, if you're standing in line at the Weinberg Center ready to go in and see a show, you'll be able to look across the street and you'll honestly think there are four people in front of the Cultural Arts Center. It's really is quite astonishing," he says. Owens  says even the ballerina looks like she's dancing.

The mural consists of 2,000 individually hand cut and hand placed mosaics. Owens says he cut and placed the tiles, and his partner, Pabis, painted them.

"We have 12 hidden  objects in the mural. We put those in there so that kids could stand and try to find the butterfly, or the dragonfly. I don't want to give anything away," he says.

Owens says the message he's trying to deliver in this mural is that there is hope for the future, despite all the doom and gloom. "It's trying to get back to that notion that in America, we have the luxury to dream," he says. "Even when times are bad, one of the spectacular things about being an American is that anything is still possible."

Owens and Pabis put together the mural located along North Market Street between 6th and 7th Streets, near Moxie Bakery. It was unveiled late last year.