When Mark Selby first visited Ellwood Park in East Baltimore a few weeks ago to check out the small public pavilion where he had been hired to paint murals, he saw a dark green building that seemed to absorb light and blur into shadows, he said.

From the street, the Catonsville artist could barely make out a group of teenagers in dark, hooded sweatshirts huddled beneath the pavilion.

"It was too dark," Selby said. "You couldn't tell what was going on under there. It needed to be brightened up."

Today, Selby is almost finished transforming the pavilion into an outdoor gallery of art that pops out from the park's natural greenery in bright yellows, blues and reds.

Residents of the area, a short distance from where Orleans Street runs into Pulaski Highway, said his work has helped transform their neighborhood park into a better place.

"Everybody likes it," said Hazel Lindsay, who has lived in the East Baltimore neighborhood around the park for 14 years.

"By him putting the paint on there and brightening up the playground, it makes it worth coming to," she said, noting she brings her six grandchildren to the park from time to time.

"And he talks to the people and gets them involved."

Involving the community in the project was part of Selby's contract with the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts and the nonprofit group Banner Neighborhoods, he said.

The two groups hired him to create four separate murals on the pavilion building and other designs for the pavilion's pillars.

There were stipulations.

Selby had to create a theme that supported cultural and ethnic diversity, avoid using certain gang colors too prominently or too exclusively, and cover his work with a layer of special, waterproof clear coat to protect it from weather and graffiti, he said.

Evidence of Selby's involvement of the community is immediately obvious to an onlooker.

Small and large handprints from adults and children in the neighborhood decorate the sides of some of the pillars.

Ethnic diversity can be seen in the various faces that Selby painted into his murals.

Though mindful of emphasizing certain gang colors, Selby didn't shy away from putting the red of the Bloods Gang with the blue of the rival Crips in his painting of the American flag on the outward facing sides of some of the pillars.

Other pillars are painted as the Maryland flag.

Selby's four murals run the gamut of recreational activities.

One includes a Maryland crab, a picnic basket and a black-eyed Susan around the words "Ellwood Park" while another is a collage of people at play, from dribbling a basketball to flying a kite to jumping rope.

One in progress will feature two boys planting a flower in front of the Baltimore skyline while another boy carries a box for recycling.

Selby said he plans to write the words, "One World, One Chance," above the mural when it is finished.

The one inside the pavilion features various children's faces surrounding a big circle, inside of which are hands holding a small plant.

"I'd rather paint from life than paint from my head," he said, referring to the photographs he taped to the wall that he used as references for the children's faces he painted.

Selby, who lives on Wessling Circle in Catonsville with his wife, Rachel, and sons Jacob, 13, and Luke, 11, said he spent nearly 25 hours conceptualizing the artwork for the project, and was happy to have the opportunity to paint a large project in the city.

He said he remembers driving through the city as a kid, seeing large-scale murals and longing to paint one himself.

A 1994 graduate of Catonsville High School, Selby went on to Villa Julie College, (now Stevenson University) to study art.

He now works as a graphic designer for Sir Speedy Printing and Marketing Services and spends his free time painting murals and other pieces of art for individuals, businesses, hospitals and non-profit organizations for his company, M. Selby Designs.

He painted the skateboarding logos on the windows of AWOL Skate Shop on Frederick Road and each year, he paints the large pink breast cancer ribbons on the windows of Perfect Touch down the road.

Over the years, he has produced about 60 murals, he said, and he is eager for more work.

The pavilion job has helped him realize a long-held dream of painting murals in the city, he said.

That satisfaction hasn't been diminished, even after a recent piece of graffiti popped up on one of his murals still in progress, he said.

He expects as much, and will paint over it just before he puts the protective coat over the entire wall, he said.

That the project has been otherwise well-received by the surrounding community is encouraging, he said.

"Everybody's response has been great," he said.

"Some say it's not going to last, but for the most part I think everyone appreciates it."

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