The Lexington Public Transit System or Lexington, as it's called, issued a contest to find an artist to paint a mural for one of its bus shelters.

Lexington recently chose a local artist, Mercedes Horn, a Spanish teacher turned painter.

She believes that art from other cultures is so important to learning more and appreciating the diversity all around us more.

And our weekly arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.

This is actually my first period ever, the work commissioned by the Wood Hill Community Center.

The gardening club knitted a garden for a garden.

I got into painting because I took a class a long time ago with my dear friend Erica Gonzalez, which is also a very famous local artist, and I enjoy the class so much I thought like, Oh, I can do that.

And since then I've been practicing.

I just keep learning from the process of being, you know, making art.

This is actually my second mural here in Kentucky, but it's also my favorite.

You know, my favorite piece, I had lots of color.

I love colors.

As you can see, I was selected for the Lexington Bus Shelter contest.

I applied that months ago, and I think even now that it was a contest, I thought that, you know, like, I probably won't have the chance.

There are so many good actors around in there in the in the city.

So I decided to present the mural and they decided that it was a very good fit for what they want.

And so I want I want to know more and I know I want a monetary award, which is great.

So it's good that is going to be done by the end of October.

So it combines nature, which I love, color what I love, and most important, a woman, as you can see.

Normally humans aren't letting humans are not normally very well portrayed.

So I want to honor as much as I can a woman.

Also, this is a dancer, and I like dancing.

I like dance also.

It's my pleasure to teach Spanish, to teach culture.

Very important.

And I do it through our traditions.

I love involving painting and art in my class and so much that the students say, Well, are you the art teacher?

I try to do my best to connect the culture, the ah with the content that I teaching.

And there is no I cannot wait any opportunity to integrate the art on it.

Kids have less opportunities to do art during school day, and so therefore I just take advantage.

This piece is called Jungle and we are.

Here are the Latin blend 2023.

So we love Hispanic Heritage Month artists, especially letting art is our showcase mostly on the most of the timber and we are really appreciate of institutions that do that and promote us.

But as an artist, we are not only doing our work on September, we normally try to do and promote ourselves through the whole entire year.

And so it's it's important that we are recognized through the whole entire year.

So just only for the Hispanic Heritage Month to showcase everything that we can, all kinds of cultures, of course, on our food through the year.

We are important and important task for and the community and in the United States and everybody else.

Things, you know, realize that.

So I want them to be more cultural and have more knowledge of what we do instead of just reading through all their media.

So I want to be, you know, to learn from the experiences.

The like Strand mural will be up around the end of this month at the bus shelter in front of the Global Lex building on Sales Road.

Check it out.