Hop, SKIP and Jump

Justin “Skip” Skipper, an artist from Orlando, poses with figures of his fiancée, Jillian and her son, Bradley, 3, that he included in the mural “The Great Race” he painted on the north side of the Seminole Feed building on the Osceola Trak near Tuscawilla Art Park in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. The mural replaces the one that has been on the building for five years. The mural that Skip painted is part of the Ocala Cultural Arts division public art in city spaces project. According to a press release from the City of Ocala: The concept for the mural is built on the idea of the connectivity and use of OTrak through various forms of pedestrian transportation. The mural will include various pedestrians who utilize the OTrak and the nearby Ocala Skate Park such as cyclists, runners, walkers, skaters and rollerbladers. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

Artist completes OTrak Mural

Justin “Skip” Skipper, an artist from Orlando, sprays sealer on the mural “The Great Race” he painted on the north side of the Seminole Feed building on the Osceola Trak near Tuscawilla Art Park. The mural replaces the one that has been on the building for five years. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette]

Imagine people of all ages and abilities riding, rolling and running between the Downtown Ocala Market and Tuscawilla Park. That was the vision for the Osceola, or OTrak, a mixed-use paved trail along Watula Avenue, which opened in 2019. That’s also the vision artist Justin “SKIP” Skipper brought to life through a new mural along the route.

“We’ve got a really cool, diverse group of different kinds of people,” Skipper said of “The Great Race,” a 215-foot-long mural on the Seminole Feed building at 335 NE Watula Ave., across from Tuscawilla Lake.

“The theme is all different nationalities, age groups and different kinds of bikes,” he explained. “It’s essentially, start to finish, a big marathon, where there’s bike riders and runners and skateboarders and roller skaters and people on scooters.”

Skipper poses with figures of his fiancée, Jillian and her son, Bradley, 3, that he included in the mural “The Great Race”. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette]

Skipper, a self-taught visual artist, musician and filmmaker based in Orlando, gave himself some sentimental reasons to return and visit his creation: He used reference photos of his friends and family as inspiration for the illustrations he projected onto the 6-foot-tall wall to paint the characters.

“My fiancée is one of the people in there,” he revealed. “A couple of the characters on the wall are small children, one being my fiancée’s son and one being my best friend’s daughter. The idea that they could come out and take a picture with it and then come back in 10 to 15 years when they’re grown up and take a picture with it again, that is definitely a very interesting perspective. That’s really cool. I really dig it.”

The scene begins with sunrise behind a young-at-heart gentleman on a scooter, continuing with a young woman on roller skates, a skateboarder, a runner, a hand cyclist and many other bicyclists depicted in the colors and patterns of midday then dusk, finally featuring a male cyclist raising his arms in triumph at the finish line.

Skipper sprays sealer on his completed mural. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette]

“It’s really just analogous of life, and different people being at different points of their own races, and how we all kind of interact and coexist with each other,” Skipper said. “Regardless of whether you’re at the beginning of your race or the end of your race, everyone’s valid and we’re all existing together and we’re all on the same path together.”

According to the City of Ocala Cultural Arts and Sciences Division, “The Great Race” is the public art element for this year’s Levitt AMP Ocala Music Series.

The city based the concept for the mural on the idea of connectivity and hopes the art will encourage use of the OTrak, said Laura Walker, Cultural Arts and Sciences Division Head.

Skipper, who calls art a “therapy device,” employed a variety of techniques including spray painting with stencils, sea sponge painting and using fine art brushes to detail the characters. He plans to share behind-the-scenes videos in an upcoming episode of his YouTube show “Skip’s Big Ideas.”

“I love being able to create things that people can enjoy, that create an improvement and make people a lot more connected with what’s going on around them,” he said. “It makes them feel proud of their area. I would love for there to be more of that. I’m glad I’m able to give them something different and new to look at.”