Local Artist Paints Beach Scene To Brighten Sayville Post Office

West Sayville, NY — The West Sayville post office has a new, fresh look thanks to local artist Tess Parker. The building had a fading, chipping mural painted decades ago and the building owner Louis Evangelista wanted something new that still kept an existing American flag and eagle stamp while being eye-catching.

Parker, an East Islip native who lived in Oakdale before moving to Brooklyn, looked to local scenery for her inspiration. She created a South Shore beach scene around the patriotic flag stamp, and put the post office name on a beach sign.

Parker worked as a creative arts therapist before "falling in love with doing murals," she told Patch. She started painting murals in hospitals, and uses art for therapy as a creative arts therapist. She's in tune with how the visual arts can help individuals and communities emotionally.

"It's more than aesthetics," Parker said. "Especially right now, with heightened tensions over current events— it's a scary year, so it's more important to do this now."

Parker said she sees an immediate change in how people communicate when there is public art in view.

"It was amazing how many people stop and appreciate it and ask about what I'm doing. It's some good news, that the community can come together. And it shows that Sayville is a community that cares about its members and the arts. It's a healthy environment that supports creative expression."

Parker hopes to continue doing local murals, and particularly wants to create something in her home town of East Islip. For her community murals she draws on her childhood growing up on the South Shore of Long Island, in and around the beach and water.

"That's what I think of when I think of a relaxing scene."