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WILKES-BARRE — The Marines who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II are here, immortalized in their historic moment from 1945.
So are the sailor and nurse who enjoyed a dramatic kiss in the street when they knew World War II was over.
The Statue of Liberty raises her lamp high, the Washington Monument gleams and an eagle soars overhead — all in a detailed mural 25-year-old artist Jay Garcia, of Sugar Notch, has painted on the wall of the community room at North Penn Manor, a personal care home on New Sherman Street.
“He’s great,” resident Harry Croop, 78, said of the artist.
“I enjoyed watching him paint,” said Regina Manley, 66. “It’s so realistic.”
Not only is the mural attractive to look at, Penn Manor owner Judy Lee said, it can also help older residents with cognition.
When you admire the artwork from left to right, it’s like a geography lesson for the United States, starting with San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the west, or left, and progressing through images of the Grand Canyon, Seattle Space Needle and St. Louis Arch before it reaches the East Coast’s Statue of Liberty, White House, National Cathedral and Washington Monument.
At the suggestion of his grandmother, Diane Evans, Garcia lettered “From Sea to Shining Sea” on a banner at the top of the mural.
“I’m not happy unless I’m painting or surrounded by paint,” he said. “I could paint all day.”
In addition to painting, Garcia enjoys playing the piano, and he has an appreciative audience when he tickles the ivories at Penn Manor.
Folks here also enjoy what he did with their dining area. A few years ago, he painted its walls so it would have the ambience of a 1950s-era diner. On one wall, he painted dancing figures — a young man with a pompadour and a young woman with a pony tail — and a jukebox that carries such song titles as “Love Me Tender,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “When I Fall In Love” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
Another wall looks like an old-time lunch counter, with a rivulet of sweet froth dripping down the side of a milkshake glass and a chalk-board style menu advertising rice pudding for 10 cents.
“I used to work at Woolworth,” said Garcia’s grandmother, Evans, explaining that her experience in the five-and-dime’s cafeteria gave her the expertise to suggest Garcia paint a napkin dispenser and a hamburger on the 1950s mural.
Last week, Garcia said he was almost finished with the “From Sea to Shining Sea” mural, and the 1950s diner motif has been finished for a while. What is his next project?
“There are more hallways here,” he said with a smile.
