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Highlands Today
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Just The Beginning
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Published: December 7, 2008
LAKE PLACID - Look closely at that mural of Christ, and you'll count 10 crosses among the clothing.
"Three crosses for the crucifixion, seven for the seven days of creation," says Wade Carter, one of two college students who painted the first in a series of scenes entitled "Just the Beginning."
It's the latest of 43 murals in Lake Placid. This one is at Ida's Hairport & Gift Boutique, 9 S. Main Ave.
"I like his eyes," said Carter's girlfriend, Elizabeth Polk. This Jesus has blue eyes.
"He's looking at the road, at the red light," said Carter. Both he and John Ritter were classmates in Sebring High School's art class, graduating in 2003. Now Carter is about to finish an engineering degree at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. By Friday, when Carter was interviewed, Ritter had returned to Florida State University, where he is an English major.
The two friends painted the scene of Jesus with open hands during their Thanksgiving break.
"It took two days," said Carter. That's all?
"We thought it would take longer," said Carter.
Ida Loving commissioned the painting after a customer recommending Carter's work on the Caladium Arts and Crafts Co-op. Carter and Ritter had previously painted at Max Long Field, an Avon Park Church, and inside schools. His next work will be at Lake Placid Elementary, with Charlotte's Web characters, SpongeBob and the Lake Placid green dragon.
"That's how I made it through college," said Carter, who plans to design buildings, bridges, roads and products when he graduates next year.
Carter and Ritter are hoping other sponsors - maybe churches - will pay to finish the work on the Hairport terminal. Loving's not so sure about that; she may want to keep control of the project.
Carter wants to add clouds, so it appears Jesus is descending for the second coming, carrying a cross. Both Carter and Loving describe themselves as Pentecostals.
God, Loving said, answered her prayers, so the painting Jesus on the side of her building kept her part of the bargain. "I promised Him I'd do that."
Senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at 863-386-5828 or gpinnell@highlandstoday.com.
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