A flood of color was introduced to downtown Sealy over the weekend as artist Hillary-Kate Kotwal finished the final touches on a mural covering the north side of The R.O.M. Church building at 314 Fowlkes Street.

The 34-foot-by-15-foot wall now has an eye-catching design of a sun with 13 colorful beams behind scripture reading, “You are the light of the world.” Kotwal donated her time, talents and efforts to the project to help brighten up the historic downtown district prior to the BOTA (Battle fOr The Arts) Sealy festival in late April.

The project took several months to mature before a brush touched the wall. Kotwal offered her talents to the Main Street Board – which she serves on – and the design was approved by the Sealy City Council, The R.O.M. Church and Sealy Main Street.

Kotwal explained that the bulk of the adversity came prior to painting the design when she was preparing the wall for the mural.

“After starting, I actually found out that I had to scrape the wall first because there was some old paint that needed to come off. Then I really thought I would just paint the rays on, but after scraping I had to prime the wall because of how much paint was scraped off,” said Kotwal. “After the priming, we had to make sure we painted it because with the prime you can still see through some of the cracks and stuff. We had to paint the whole wall, and each time you have to wait a whole day to make sure it’s dry. Then after that, the taping took a whole day, and then finally we got to paint.”

The muralist explained that she did have to refresh her geometry when dilating her design to fit the church wall.

“I had to go back and do some calculations for radius and circumference, that way I could get the rays all equal and not look just like paint went on the wall,” said Kotwal.

The new mural was coincidentally completed the day prior to the reopening of The R.O.M. Church, Sunday, Jan 2. For more on their first service in nearly two years, visit Page 2.

“That is a happy coincidence. So, The R.O.M. Church had donated the wall I guess to paint this mural,” shared Kotwal. “They really liked the design and that it has scripture on it. They actually didn’t know if they were coming back to session, but last week or two weeks ago, they had a board meeting and during that board meeting, they said it was really crazy because they had just decided that they would come back in January.”

Kotwal explained that she was grateful for the opportunity to bring color to the downtown district and impact the community that she lives in.

“I’m just really excited. I think we’ll bring more business to the small businesses on Main Street and hopefully bring the community together and then also share God’s light with everybody,” Kotwal said.

Kotwal ensured to emphasize thanks for all of the organizations and individuals that helped her with the project including her husband Ash, Sealy Main Street Manager Chelsea Humes, Derald Jackson with The R.O.M. Church, Jeff Trevino, Ed Robins, AL&M Building Supply, Ace Hardware and Rachel Galvan.