On a Saturday morning in Safford, Arizona, a library wall became a place where neighbors could leave a mark. Residents of all ages, including community leaders, joined muralist Molly Keen at the Safford City-Graham County Library on September 19 for a public paint day, helping turn a long-planned piece of public art into something the town could make together.
The mural, titled "Tracks and Tales," is designed for the library's exterior north wall along 8th Avenue. Its central idea connects two kinds of journeys: the railroad history that helped shape the Gila Valley and the stories that move through a library. The approximately 70-foot-wide design includes train cars filled with books, along with details drawn from Safford's landscape, history and everyday life.
A blank wall becomes a shared project
The city and the library had been developing the project for months. A City of Safford release said the community helped select the mural, giving residents a voice in choosing a new landmark. The Safford City Council approved the project in March, according to reporting from Gila Valley Central, and the library chose Keen after reviewing applications from artists.
Keen's approach made the public session accessible to people who did not think of themselves as artists. She divided the lower sections into simplified light-and-dark areas so volunteers could paint by color while she reserved higher and more detailed portions for later. Gila Valley Central reported that dozens of people joined during the two-hour session, with many arriving at the start. The point was participation: people could contribute without needing to know how to draw or paint a finished mural.
The arrangement also let different generations work beside one another. Photographs from the event showed young attendees concentrating on their sections while older residents and community leaders worked nearby. Vice Mayor Arnold Lopez joked that he had legally tagged a wall. Library Director Victoria Silva said the project had been something the library wanted for years because it would help people recognize the building as a library and as a place belonging to the community.
Local details are part of the design
Keen built the composition around things residents would recognize. The train and books point to the area's railroad and library history, while smaller references include native plants, local authors, Safford Bulldogs imagery, chips and salsa, a cat inspired by Essence of Tranquility Hot Springs, and Myrtle the Turtle, a familiar animal from the library's interior terrarium. Those details give people reasons to look closely after the wall is finished and to talk about what they see.
In an earlier project announcement carried with City of Safford information, Keen said she wanted the mural to feel as though it belonged to Safford rather than simply being placed there. Her goal was to make a work that residents could see themselves in and revisit, with small pieces that might prompt someone to stop and ask about a person, place or memory. The paint day put that idea into practice before the mural was complete.
Keen's community-centered method grew from an early decision to paint while traveling. In the interview reported by Safford Thrive and the Gila Herald, she recalled buying a one-way ticket to South America as a young adult and beginning to paint hostel walls in Colombia. That experience became the starting point for Team Building Murals, her initiative for helping children, young people and adults create public art together, including people with no formal art experience.
The work continues after the paint day
The September 19 session was one step in a larger process. Keen continued working at the library through the following week, adding layers and details after the volunteers completed their guided sections. The project schedule called for a free art class for elementary-age children and a public ribbon-cutting on Saturday, September 26, when the library and the Graham County Chamber of Commerce plan to celebrate the finished mural.
That timeline gives Safford something unusual to watch: a public building changing in full view, with the people who use it helping shape the result. A library is already a place where stories are collected and shared. With "Tracks and Tales," its outside wall is becoming another kind of community record, one painted by the people who live around it and filled with the references they chose to carry forward.
The finished mural will be a visible landmark, but the Saturday gathering is part of its meaning. Neighbors did not only attend an unveiling; they helped make the image while it was still taking shape. Each guided brushstroke added another small connection between the library, the town's history and the people who will pass the wall on their way to school, work, errands or a book.
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