Where the Sidewalk Ends

Beloiters engage with the city they love by creating an art piece for the Merrill Community Garden inspired by Shel Silverstein’s 1974 classic “Where The Sidewalk Ends”.

Ava Rockafield completed a special project with Professor Jingjing Lou in fall 2020. For the special project course, Ava worked on finishing the mural that Hannah Oxford had started but could not finish due to COVID lockdown in Spring 2020. Hannah left Beloit to attend graduate school at University of New Mexico.

Mural for Merrill Community garden, 2020, 4x12 feet, house paint and oil on plywood. Credit: Hannah Oxford and Ava Rockafield

Hannah, who majored in Environmental Studies with a minor in Education and Youth Studies, and Ava with a Major in Art completed this painting as a depiction of the city of Beloit and the Merrill Community Garden which was inspired by the 1974 Shel Silverstein poem “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” The garden sits between two sidewalks and replicates his description of a peaceful place.

Ava (right) and Hannah (left) at Art House, 2017. Ava (right) and Hannah (left) at Art House, 2017.“Hannah and I have come to love this town … She’s biked nearly every inch of it and I’ve tagged along behind when the gears on my old magenta bike don’t threaten to give out. I spend some sunny afternoons sketching the plants of the garden. I watercolor while sitting on the colorful benches and watch the squirrels scurry around. We wanted to leave behind something in Beloit, because we love this city, and it’s where we’ve grown into who we are now….Overall, this mural brought me a lot of joy to work on, and I hope it brings Kaelyb and my Beloit neighbors joy.” -Ana Rockafield