PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS — A neighborhood mural of sports greats is getting new faces this week, repainted by locals from the Crown Heights Youth Collective.
A crew of painters worked on the mural Monday at the northwest corner of Washington and Lefferts avenues, updating the spread to feature new portraits of current and classic athletes like Mets infielder Daniel Murphy, sprinter Usain Bolt, soccer star Mia Hamm and boxer Muhammad Ali.
The mural has been a neighborhood staple, displayed on the side of a Washington Avenue beverage store since the mid-1990s, said muralist Alan Williams, who paints under the name Menelek III. The sports figures — which he says he "does by eye" — are part of years of work with the Crown Height Youth Collective to help spruce up walls around the neighborhood; he lent a hand on artwork at the nearby Prospect Park train station and the Firestone service station on Empire Boulevard, he said.
Additions to the mural will also included changing leaves and a waterfall, painted by Crown Heights resident Sherwayne Anthony Anderson, who has been working on the painting for a couple of weeks, he said. It's not his first work in the neighborhood; he's done several others, including a painting of the Teenage Mutant Turtles at Church and Flatbush avenues and, most recently, a water scene on Westbury Court.
“We’re in fall, so I wanted to give a little autumn look,” he said of the work.
Painter Sherwayne Anthony Anderson completes an "autumn look" at the site of the new mural, he said. (Photo credit: DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith)
The wall has depicted sports stars for some time, including peeling and faded versions of track star Florence Joyner and Tiger Woods. Anderson said the Crown Heights Youth Collective chose to paint the wall in an effort to spruce up the corner. The non-profit commissions street artwork in the area, usually painted by local young people and residents.
Anderson said the piece will take another week or so to complete. The mural will include about 15 athletes in total.
