Meet Me at Daley Park

Painted in 2018, Jake Early’s tribute to Tempe, “Meet Me at Daley Park,” showcases the city’s history at 400 feet. When Early was designing this mural, he connected with the neighborhood adjacent to the park, which inspired the name of the mural. He really wanted to “create a digital history [timeline] of this neighborhood, at that time of the mural to roughly 100 years ago.” A notable part of the mural is the Arizona flag bookended by Pecan trees which would have been in the area. “Roughly 100 years ago, Arizona had just come into statehood, so my placement of the Arizona flag is a nod to that,” says Early. He chuckles as he describes the history and how then “students were riding bikes and listening to music on wired earbuds, and now they’re listening on [Airpods].” Because the piece is so big and features many vignettes, the photo opportunities are endless! He painted this mural in 12 weeks after a couple of delays, including breaking his arm just nine days into the project!  Fun fact: it was the City of Tempe’s second public mural commission.