After holding a contest where Park students submit art or photographs to be displayed on a utility box in St. Louis Park, members of Roots and Shoots, City Council and a neighborhood representative selected senior Nathaniel Sturzl’s photograph for the winner.

According to senior Roots and Shoots member Zosha Skinner, the wrapped utility box is on 28th Street and Louisiana.

Skinner said the process of selecting a winner was long and there as a lot of things to consider.

“(Members of Roots and Shoot, City Council and neighborhood representatives) sat in a room at the City Council for about three hours trying to decide which one we wanted to put on the wrap because we had such a strong pool of art and it was all very beautiful and well thought out,” Skinner said.

Sturzl said he chose to submit his colored picture of a glacier in Iceland because it represented the beauty in nature.

“Standing next to the glacier, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. So when someone told me about the contest, I thought about that picture and what nature means to me,” Sturzl said.

Skinner said Sturzl also wrote to the judges why he submitted the picture for the contest.

“(Sturzl) said that ‘the black and white one was like a skeleton decomposing, just like the glaciers are decomposing and melting away.’ (His explanation) was a big contender because his art really did represent his feelings and his thoughts and precisely what he was trying to communicate to us,” Skinner said.

Former Roots and Shoots adviser Al Wachutka said having art in the community helps make people aware that a change needs to happen.

“When you start to have community art that is publicly displayed, it gives people a greater sense of pride in the area. Whether it is educational or not is not what is important. What is important, is that people see (the art) and realize it’s a method of improving the appearance of urban areas,” Wachutka said.

According to Skinner, Isaac Wahl was awarded as the second place winner.

“(The judges) also liked Isaac’s because his (art) very much looked like student art and they liked the idea of students in the neighborhood being able to see somebody’s actual drawn artwork up on a utility box wrap,” Skinner said.

Skinner said the Bronx Park neighborhood is interested in displaying Wahl’s art on a utility box.