GREENVILLE, TEX.--Greenville resident and Youth Pastor at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Justin Milton, and Greenville High School student, Alex Garcia, came together last week to create a work of art for the Greenville High School Library. The work features a lion painted onto "deleted" library books.

 Librarian, Cinda Boshart, said that the artwork was truly an "act of community involvement". She explained that the inspiration for the painting came from the work of artist Mike Stilkey, known for painting murals on reclaimed books.

 After looking for creative uses for the unused books, the idea for creating a work of art came from Boshart’s husband and daughter. Boshart’s daughter had seen one of Stilkey’s pieces in a library on a recent mission trip and her husband suggested creating their own “Stilkey” with the deleted library books. Boshart then contacted a friend from church, Youth Pastor Justin Milton, to ask him to do the painting.

 Boshart’s husband attached the books together to create the “canvas” and Milton did the painting. On the last day of painting, Milton recruited the help of Greenville High School student, Alex Garcia, to help with the shading and touch ups to the lion. Having done several drawings for the library already, Garcia was more than qualified to assist.

 The resulting work of art sits proudly in the center of the library. “We’d like to do another one later” said Boshart, “[my husband] wants to do a giant Einstein!”