NOT many teenagers are able to bring their thoughts to life on an inner city mural.
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But Lee Corbett is not your average teenager.
The Cooks Hill Campus year 10 student, 16 - who already has their own illustration and character design business - has spent the past week painting their design on the wall of a thoroughfare bordered by King, John and Gibson streets in Cooks Hill.
"This is 20 times bigger than anything else I've ever painted or drawn on," Lee said.
"It's really cool to see it along the wall and I'm really happy with how it came out. We've had positive feedback from members of the community walking past, which is really awesome to hear."
Lee's design promotes the ideas of connection and wellness and features hands holding one end of a rainbow, which snakes its way through a boombox, characters' heads and a phone.
It also includes shapes, a UFO and a panda that glow under UV light.
"Being connected with other people and through art and music and staying connected with nature is important to me," they said.
"It gives you a better quality of life."
Lee said community arts organisation Up and Up invited Lee to partner with them in applying for a Newcastle City Council Boost Your Place grant, plus come up with a design for the space.
The trio spent 18 hours painting the mural this week.
Lee had worked with Up and Up before, helping to paint another artist's design on the Charlestown water tower and coming up with their own design that was painted on a traffic signal box.
The mural is part of Lee's independent research project for school, in which they are also investigating smart and sustainable workplace design and the positive effect of art in workplaces.
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