Great Art: Muralist and professional basketball player, both from the Fishers, team up to inspire youth

On a bright spring day, several artists brought even brighter colors to one of the outdoor basketball courts at Brooks School Park on 116th Street in Fishers.

Artist Koda Witsken monitored the progress of her design for the North Plaza, which features an astronaut with a basketball and a galaxy in the background.

“The South Courtyard will have a similar cosmic theme,” she said. “Very, very colorful, but with a rocket shooting across half the field and a black hole with Saturn's rings on the other side.”

Although Witsken designed the two murals, the vision came from NBA player Gary Harris of the Orlando Magic. The two are both from Fishers and attended Hamilton Southeastern High School around the same time, although Witsken said they were not close friends at the time.

“A mutual friend reached out to us because Gary had wanted to give back to the Fishers for years – creating basketball court murals – and just hadn’t found the right artist to bring his vision to life,” she said. “Our mutual friend – we all went to high school (together) – said, 'Well, have you talked to Koda?' So here we are.”

Witsken said Harris' goal is to inspire the next generation of Indiana basketball youth, particularly the Fishers, to “reach for the stars.”

“My love for basketball began in Indiana, the Basketball State, and specifically in Fishers,” Harris said in a City of Fishers press release. “Given all that basketball has done for me and my family, it was important to me to give some of that love back to the Fishers community with vibrant, expressive basketball courts for Indiana's next generation of basketball talent to enjoy “I’m excited to work with Koda and the city on this project to make the vision a reality.”

Witsken's work is well known in the greater Indianapolis area and she has created numerous murals, particularly in Fishers. This project is a little different, she said, because it's done horizontally — on the field — rather than on a vertical wall. She used a grid to map the fields, took a drone shot of the fields and overlaid the images so she knew which part of the designs fit into which grid block.

“Once we create the grid, we create the sketch (on the court),” she said. “Then we fill in the sketch with color. Because there are so many colors here – there are actually 30 – I developed a paint-by-numbers system so I could have a team help me install it.”

A sandy aggregate is mixed into the paint, she said. This makes the surface less slippery for players. Witsken said they use the same type of paint that was originally on the field and it is fairly durable. It should stay bright and shiny for at least a few years with normal use.

“In a year or two years it won't be going anywhere, but in five to seven years – just like you would touch up the places as they currently exist, just with green and blue paint – they're going to need some love,” she says said. “The parks department has the paint-by-numbers system that we use, along with all the colors, so they can spot the treatment as needed until we come back and have to do the whole thing again.”

According to a statement from the City of Fishers, the murals are part of a commitment to celebrating creativity through public art.

“What a great project to kick off summer,” said Marissa Deckert, director of Fishers Parks. “Our Parks Department is so grateful to Gary Harris for working with artist Koda Witsken to make this dream a reality. We can't wait to share this with the community and celebrate with an event open to all ages. This project brings a winning combination of community and vibrancy to one of our most popular parks.”

Witsken said she has always loved art and expressed her appreciation for a supportive family and her HSE art teacher Angela Fritz. Witsken said Fritz inspired her to become a muralist.

“She gave us 8-foot boards and said, 'Paint this,' and I had never painted anything that big and I just fell in love,” she said. “From the 8-foot board to painting my bedroom—thanks, Dad—to my first public mural in Fishers when I was 21.”

Witsken graduated from HSE in 2011.

Her latest Fishers murals are special, she said.

“I think it's really fun and meaningful that Gary wanted to give back to the place where he grew up and learned the game, which is now his life,” Witsken said. “And now, through art, I can give back to the place where I grew up, which taught me about art and made it special in my life.”

Both murals are scheduled to be completed in early May.

Tournament celebrating new works of art

In honor of the completion of the new basketball murals at Brooks School Park, Fishers Parks has planned an outdoor 3-on-3 double-elimination tournament for ages 16 and up; and a 3-point contest for ages 8 and up on May 18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Brooks School Park, 11565 Brooks School Rd.

The 3-on-3 tournament is for teams of three or four. The fourth player in a four-man team is a substitute throughout the tournament, but no substitutions are permitted during a single game.

Teams will be charged a fee of $75 for teams of three and $90 for teams of four.

In the 3-point competition, participants are divided into age categories: 8 to 13; 14 to 18; and 19+. The entry fee is $15 per person.

For more information, see playfishers.com.