When Venice-based photographer Liesl Walsh opened an email last March from Sarasota Police Department volunteer coordinator Michelle Kellner, she was stunned—in the best possible way.
“I was blown away,” Walsh said. Kellner wrote that she had long admired Walsh’s work and had her eye on one image in particular: Walsh’s luminous photograph, “Skyline of Sarasota, Florida.” Would Liesl consider allowing the department to use it on a vehicle wrap for a new community project?
Walsh, who has had her art featured on multiple vehicle wraps in Venice and for private companies, assumed it would be for a van. She had no idea the image would eventually stretch across the Sarasota Learning Center, a 28-foot trailer launched as an innovative investment in area youth.
The fully equipped mobile classroom was created by the Sarasota Police Department’s Community Relations Unit. It is stocked with iPads, a smartboard, classroom supplies, satellite internet, a 3D printer and over 200 books. Funded through a philanthropic effort led by Sarasota resident Deb Kabinoff, the $100,000 unit serves as a “field trip on wheels,” bringing reading, math enrichment and positive police interaction directly into neighborhoods and schools.
Kellner had one request at the time for Walsh’s skyline: more teal. “The blue was so close to teal that it was easy to make that change using Lightroom and Photoshop,” Walsh explained.
From there, the image took on a life of its own.
Early on, Kellner asked if the department could create a colorful, comic-strip-style rendering to appeal to children. “I said, ‘Go for it.’” A former art teacher who enjoys creating painterly effects in her own work, she happily gave the design team complete creative freedom.
The result exceeded every expectation.
On the day of the reveal, Walsh parked at a distance and caught her first glimpse of the trailer. “I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is so big!’” she said. “I was surprised and overjoyed. It made such a happy, positive impact, even from far away.”
She was thrilled that the feeling of her original image remained intact. Captured on a windless Christmas morning in 2018—when Sarasota Bay was “like glass” and the Ringling Bridge and skyline reflected in perfect stillness—the photograph has long been Walsh’s most popular print. “One of my goals is to give people calm, positive feelings through my art,” she said. “Even with the comic rendering, those feelings still came through.”
Walsh donated the image, and her credit appears on the back of the trailer so drivers can see it as the Learning Center travels through town. Seeing her work become part of something so community-centered was deeply meaningful.
“So many people donated finances, time and talent to put this together,” she said. “To be part of something that brings education, technology and joy to children—it’s the neatest thing.” Explore Walsh’s work at lieslwalsh.com.
The Sarasota Learning Center brings reading, math enrichment and positive police interaction directly into neighborhoods and schools.