Color of Hockey: Winter sports mural at Maryland rink highlights diversity

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, he profiles Luis Peralta Del Valle, an artist who painted a giant diverse hockey, figure skating and winter sport mural that’s the centerpiece of the Tucker Road Ice Rink in Fort Washington, Maryland.

Luis Peralta Del Valle has painted portraits of popes, politicians, civil rights icons and celebrities.

But one of the pieces the 43-year-old Nicaragua-born and Washington, D.C.-raised artist said he’s most proud of isn’t in a museum or an art gallery.

It’s inside a skating rink.

Del Valle painted a giant mural that celebrates hockey, figure skating and other winter activities and highlights diversity as the centerpiece of the Tucker Road Ice Rink, a one-sheet facility in Fort Washington, Maryland.

“It really speaks to the community,” Del Valle said of his work. It’s a reflection of the diverse kids in the community. “A lot of times we tend to be divided because of what race we are or where we grew up at. I just wanted them to know that we have more things in common than we do that separates us.”

The 10-foot-by-10-foot artwork features images of boys and girls hockey players; a sled hockey player and three women figure skaters, all seemingly skating on an icy sheet with a backdrop of a map of the community.

One hockey player and the sled player are clad in the pink, black and white jerseys of the Tucker Road Ducks, a nod to the minority-oriented team that makes the rink its home.

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.

His sister, Jennifer Valle, is a Washington Capitals fan so passionate, she got a tattoo on her left forearm after they won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with the team’s name and the Cup centered within the District of Columbia boundary lines.

“Oh man, she and her husband are always at games and when I go to their house, that’s what they have on, and we watch,” he said. “I have a jersey, too, so do my kids. I think that working with the Tucker Road Ice Rink ... and my little sister kind of shows how family influences family members.”

Del Valle first gained notoriety as a young graffiti artist in the Washington area after his family arrived in the U.S. from Nicaragua in 1985.

He began his formal art education at Washington’s Bell Multicultural High School and went on to study at the Corcoran College of Art and Design in the city.

He developed into a muralist and portrait artist and has featured iconic figures like Pope Francis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, activist Cesar Chavez and Cuban singer Celia Cruz. He also has done 14 commissioned murals at Washington, D.C., public schools.

His works have been displayed at museums, galleries, and government institutions including the Italian and Vatican Embassies, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.

And the Tucker Road Ice Rink.

“What I love about the mural at the rink is I get to connect with the immediate community,” he said. “People really get to enjoy my work every day as opposed to for a season at a gallery or museum show.”