The sidewalks at PlayTown Suwanee are infinitely cheerier and more attractive thanks to Girl Scout Lena Towne of Troop 2440! Her Gold Award project, entitled PlayTown Painters: A Work of heART, showcases murals from different artists throughout the community to highlight the creativity and diversity present in Suwanee. Finalists were selected by a team of professional judges from the art world, and the artists put paint to sidewalk in June.

PlayTown Painters

Ava Belflower - Falling 

Ava Belflower is interested in art of all kinds, and likes to spend her time painting and drawing. She chose this piece because illusion art was the first style that she really enjoyed seeing and creating. This piece shows that everyone views things differently based on their perspective, as illusion art can be perceived as rising or falling.

Jimmy Cheng - Blue Lakes

Jimmy Cheng is a self-taught artist who start painting during the pandemic in late 2020 to cope with depression and anxiety. The abstract piece is part of Jimmy’s “blue phase.” Blue Lake is a series of abstract paintings somewhere in the far distance – a place he’s never been, but sees in his dreams.

Cherie Heringer - Whimsy

Cherie Heringer is an artist, arts advocate, and community volunteer. She is the former Director of the Academy of the Arts, President of the North Gwinnett Arts Association, and a founding member of the Johns Creek Arts Festival. For her second act, Cherie is enjoying exploring and developing her own art – mainly abstract and abstract landscapes, working with watercolors and ink, and writing.

April Hernandez - Bricks in the Wall

April Hernandez has loved art since she was a child. She is especially drawn to hand lettering and design, and enrolled in technical school to learn advertising design. In 2015, April went through a tragic loss and turned to Bible journaling for comfort, rediscovering her artistic talent and love for hand lettering through healing.

Ari, Tori, and Bella Meyer - Being Koi

Sisters Arianna, Victoria, and Bella Meyer chose to center their piece around koi fish, which is a large and significant part of their Asian culture. Known universally as a symbol of strength, perseverance, love, bravery, and dedication, the three koi in the painting represent the three sisters in their family.

Mallory Sakmar - Cheery Beary

Mallory is a graduate of the University of Georgia, with a bachelor’s degree in fine art. For this project, Mallory wanted to design an image that could be enjoyed by boys and girls of all ages, so she created a set of cute gummy bears! Her art was inspired by her designs created as part of a coloring book for children during art therapy.

Lena Towne - The Flower Fairies

Lena is proud to have been a Girl Scout from Kindergarten to twelfth grade with Troop 2440. In addition to earning the Gold Award with this project, Lena was also one of the first female BSA Eagle Scouts in the country, making her well acquainted with large-scale service projects! Lena selected fairies as her personal piece’s focus because fairies, imagination, and magical whimsy have been an essential part of her childhood experiences. She also contributed the children’s interactive games scattered throughout.

Dora Wang and Zola Zhang - Zola in PlayTown

Ying Wang was born and raised in Shanghai, China, earned a Master of Fine Art in Canada, and has worked as a graphic designer in Canada and the United States. Wang’s piece was inspired by her daughter Zola’s love of PlayTown and its artistic cows. The art features elements from both Chinese and American culture, including Chinese paper cutting, an old art language for uneducated village women to pass down stories.

Michelle Werl - Shine

Michelle Werl is a self-taught artist with a passion for encouraging others to express themselves through art. She began teaching herself how to incorporate flowers into art through collage, painting, and mixed media techniques as an homage to her great-grandmother, who grew flowers for local florists. Michelle enjoys experimenting with bold colors and a variety of mixed-media techniques.

Abby Wilkerson - Hi!

Abby Wilkerson is the Public Information Officer for the City of Suwanee. After telling everyone about the amazing things happening in the city, her next favorite thing is participating in the amazing things! Abby’s daughters, Mollie and Ellie, wanted to create a sweet and cheerful welcome for the kids coming to play on the playground.

Work of heART Judges

• Sonny Franks – muralist
• Dallas Gillespie – North Gwinnett High School art department
• Toni Shrewsbury – City of Suwanee Public Art Coordinator
• Dick & Penny Cunningham - funding contributor

Interactive Games

Twister | Grab a few friends and have one person be in charge of calling the motions, and simply follow the directions! You can use any of the circles of that particular color, but beware of how twisted up you can get! Tip: download the app “Twist n Spin on the Go” to complete this classic board game!

• Did you know? Twister was originally created as a game of tic-tac-toe using feet called 'Pretzel.' Twister was released in the 1960s and continues to be a best-selling game.

Maze | Pick one of the two numbered circles to start and walk along the line until you identify the correct ending circle.

• Did you know? Mazes are some of the most common games played. They have been reproduced in books, on menus, as living hedges, and even on sidewalks!

Jump! | Stand on the two footprints and try to jump as far as possible without taking a running start. 

• Did you know? The footprints painted on the sidewalk are of Zora, the three-year-old daughter of the muralist who painted the bull! 

Hopscotch | Go find a small rock (or a woodchip or pinecone will do!) and gently toss it onto the hopscotch board. Then jump out to where the object landed, hopping on one foot for single squares (like 1, 4, 7, & 10), and hopping with both feet on double squares (like 2-3, 5-6, & 7-8)

• Did you know? The original hopscotch boards were over 100 feet long and were used as training for the British and Roman military while wearing full armor!

Tic Tac Toe | Take turns with your friend marking a square on the board until one of you gets three in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Tic tac toe is usually played with one player writing “X”s on the board and the other writing “O”s, but if you don’t have any chalk try using woodchips for one player and rocks for another.

• Did you know? Tic Tac Toe was originally called "Tit Tat Toe" the 16th century. Tit means to slap and Tat is a retaliation (like Tit for Tat). Toe is for the third piece in a row, securing the winning combination.

Go Find… | Follow the directions for this simple scavenger hunt, locate each object, then place the objects in the circles. Don’t forget to put everything back so that the next person can play!

• Did you know? 2,070 participants set the World Record for the Largest Scavenger Hunt in 2014 in Provo, Utah. 

How Many Triangles? | Take a long look and try to count how many triangles you see. Spoiler: There are 18 triangles in that image! How many did you find?

• Did you know? This kind of visual brain teaser is actually a type of IQ test and has been used for many years!