Color of Hockey: Winter sports mural at Maryland rink highlights diversity | NHL.com

The mural also has an image of Matthew Henson, a Black explorer who was born in Nanjemoy, Maryland, and made history in 1909 as one of the first Americans to reach the North Pole. The piece is titled “Maripaluk,” an affectionate nickname the Artic Inuit community gave Henson during his explorations.

“It’s actually a conversation piece,” said Alexandria Briggs-Blake, president of the Tucker Road Parent Organization, part of a stakeholder group at the rink. “It’s a very diverse and inclusive mural in a beautiful location in the ice rink that is displayed in a way that brings people together.”

In 2020, Briggs-Blake was a finalist for the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, given by the NHL “to an individual who — through the sport of hockey — has positively impacted his or her community, culture or society.”

Del Valle said he enjoys hearing compliments about the mural from rink patrons whenever he takes his children skating.

“People don’t know I painted it, so I listen to people talk,” he said. “One of the things I love the most is a lot of people talk about how someone looks like someone in the mural, that people see themselves or people that they know.”

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission selected Del Valle from a group of artists to paint the mural for the nearly $28 million, 48,860-square foot rink that opened in 2021. It replaced the old Tucker Road rink that was destroyed by a two-alarm electrical fire in January 2017.

“We had to satisfy the hockey and figure skating communities with the mural, so we went through at least six drafts to come up with what the final product would be,” said Alec Simpson, Visual and Public Arts Coordinator for M-NCPPC/Prince George’s Department of Parks and Recreation. “He was very professional and went above and beyond the call of duty in that regard.”

Del Valle said he leaned into his fondness of hockey, gained through his two children and younger sister, and his experience as a novice skater for artistic inspiration.