DENVER — A local artist is paying homage to the Denver Nuggets as they prepare to compete in the NBA Finals for the first time in team history.
"Very colorful, very vibrant, just very realistic" is how Kerry Merrell describes the mural, located next to the 7/11 on Colfax near High and Race streets.
Merrell stopped by to snap a picture early Monday after hearing about the mural on social media.
"It's wonderfully done. It's fun to see the city alive right now with the sport," Merrell said.
"I love it. Just the colors, the aesthetics," said Jon Shah, who stopped by with his wife and two kids to take a picture in front of the artwork. "It really just feels very Colorado-y — the sun, the Nuggets colors. I really think it's a wonderful way to encompass the run that we're going on here."
"We're a sports town and you know, we're winning, I think that really gravitated to a lot of people's heartstrings," said Thomas "Detour" Evans, the mural's creator.
Detour says the Nuggets' first-ever Finals appearance is what inspired his latest masterpiece, which features Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray.
"I would say my work is really expressive, lots of color, lots of bold color," said Detour.
The artist said he was not expecting his mural to get so much attention.
"Usually I just paint and really don't even think about because painting is sort of like my therapy," he said.
"It's one of his great things he's done around the city trying to bring positivity and color into the city," said Merrell, who is a fan of Detour's artwork and has been following his projects through social media for a while now.
"It's cool to see the whole city rally around something. That's what sports have always been for a community. And it's really exciting to see it not just in the games themselves, but things like this with this mural," added Shah.
Just like the Nuggets, Detour says his work is not done yet.
"Throughout the series, I'm going to add some more elements that just sort of, like, that pop off the wall to me when I'm watching the games, and add that to the mural as well so that it's more of an in-progress mural as we sort of celebrate, you know, them winning the championship. So even after they win, adding a trophy and some lettering as well," he said.
Detour hopes the mural can stay up for at least another year.
