Bright Space Murals Adds Color to the Community

Until last spring, there was a blank wall outside of Denver’s PREP Academy at 2727 Columbine Street. Thanks to Andreas Kremer and Reina Luna, the co-founders of Bright Space Murals, that wall is now adorned with butterflies, blooming flowers, the Colorado State Capitol building and an inspiring message.

“Usually we create the design based off of the business’s mission; we revolve it around the business’s goals and create the art through that,” Luna says. “But the schools give us complete freedom, so we asked the kids, ‘What do you guys want to see? Because this is your legacy.’ So they created the whole concept, and we just were guiding them, helping them make the design work.” 

Collaborating with their clients so intensively through the entire design process is not something that Bright Space does often, but it’s indicative of the team’s eagerness to get others involved and excited about art. “I want to bring more art into the community but also bring the community into the art,” Kremer says. “Whether it’s kids, or other businesses and people, I want them to work with us and see how we can bring this to life and all be a part of adding to the city in some way.” 

That philosophy was one of many artistic similarities that Kremer found he shared with Luna, shortly after they were introduced by a mutual friend and fellow artist. “We both had a very crazy style, very abstract, so we bonded over that,” Kremer recalls. 

The timing of their meeting proved fortuitous, because soon got a huge offer from his employers at the time, the snowboard company Never Summer, to paint a mural on a forty-foot-long shipping container positioned in front of the company’s factory. He promptly reached out to Luna for help.

The duo had never painted a mural before, but they didn’t let their nerves get the best of them. “It felt safe because [Andreas] worked there,” Luna says. “We didn’t seek out the job or have any pressure, so at the end of the day, we were like, ‘Well, if it looks really bad, we could just paint it solid.’ But it turned out really good.”

“Being able to do that and then get money for it made me realize I actually did this,” Kremer adds. “It really made me feel like a professional artist… It was the biggest thing we had ever painted, this forty-foot shipping container, so just to be able to complete it and get so much positive feedback was really something.”

From there, Bright Space’s business continued to grow to the point that about a year after the first Never Summer job, Kremer was able to leave his job and start painting murals full-time. In addition to painting murals at local schools, the duo made connections with businesses and restaurants that wanted Bright Space Murals to take on other projects. And more are coming.

“We went to Miami recently, and there’s this ten-by-ten block where the whole city is just covered in murals,” Kremer says. “So coming back here, it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s so much we could bring to this space.” 

Of course, creating murals comes with its own set of challenges. The weather in Denver can change on a dime, and bigger projects, such as the 100-foot-long wall they painted at George Washington High School last year, can be tedious and intimidating endeavors that leave little margin for error. 

“There was an old mural already painted on there, and we had to pretty much start from the beginning,” Luna says. “The foundation was just terrible, so we had to spend hours prepping that wall… It was so much work before the actual work started. But it was such an enjoyable mural at the end.”

That mural takes direct inspiration from the nature surrounding George Washington High School, as well as the Denver area in general. The foothills and mountains loom in the background, while butterflies flit from flower to flower in the foreground next to signs pointing towards Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Meow Wolf and other local landmarks. 

The centerpiece of the mural is a grand tree with leaves entirely made up of Kremer and Luna’s handprints — manually printed in various colors at least 200 times over.

“The big thing is, we’re just trying to share art with others, whether it’s just putting art up on the wall or having people come paint with us,” Kremer says of their mission.

“At the end of the day, people need to remember that you can have fun in your day-to-day life,” Luna adds. “Even if you’re not into art or don’t think about art, it’ll set your mind free.”

To keep the fun in their day-to-day lives, the creative duo is hoping to find more projects that focus on their specific interests, particularly outdoor recreation — they did a mural for the X Games in Salt Lake City last year — as well as wellness and staff appreciation in the workplace. Until then, they’ll be going back to school.

After members of the PREP Academy class of 2025 had a design for the mural they were happy with, the Bright Space team got to work tracing the outlines, then invited students and community members to help them with the extensive paint job. 

The mural itself looks like a collaborative product: a mixture of ideas and visions that celebrate PREP Academy’s Class of 2026, from bright flowers and butterflies to a depiction of the Colorado State Capitol in soft blues and purples. A yearbook filled with messages and signatures from those who worked on the project sits in the bottom left corner of the wall. At the top, the message “You Can Do More Than You Imagine” is painted in purple letters. 

Bright Space Murals will be back at the school this spring, working on a follow-up project with the students and helping them do more than they could imagine.

For more information, visit brightspacemurals.com and watch time-lapse videos of mural projects on Kremer’s YouTube channel, Andreas Does Art.