It’s retro Coney — in full color!
The formerly bare walls of Valerio’s Way in Luna Park are being transformed into a vibrant art walk that highlights the People’s Playground’s past. Luna Park commissioned Sheepshead Bay street artist Danielle Mastrion to paint a three-walled tribute to Coney Island, and she aims to make the work a monument to the area’s history.
“I actually call the mural a walk through time,” said Mastrion. “It’s suppose to be Coney Island’s past and present.”
Once completed, the mural will span three walls with tributes to iconic structures and more than a century of the neighborhood’s history. Sites such as the Elephant Colossus, the original entryway of Luna Park predecessor Dreamland Amusement Park, and a recreation of a 1940s Miss Coney Island will line the walls.
Mastrion has worked on the first of three walls for more than two months. In it, a fanciful mermaid queen with the Parachute Jump as her crown greets beach-goers. The background currently features a skyline of rides, but will soon include a cityscape of western Coney Island’s high-rise apartment buildings to emphasize that the nabe is more than just a tourist attraction.
“I feel it’s important to add the cityscape of Coney Island, because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just the seaside and the rides — that’s the part that gets a lot of love, but there’s a whole neighborhood here — that needs to be highlighted,” said Mastrion.
The Southern Brooklyn native frequented the People’s Playground with her mother as a kid. To this day the neon signs for rides that no longer exist stick out in her mind, evoking the warm memories of summer trips to the beach with family that inspired her to create the mural.
“There are so many happy memories I have about this place,” she said. “A lot of people have negative things to say about Coney Island, but to me, its never been negative, and I want to show that in a mural.”
Mastrion aims to complete all three walls by January.
