‘Hope Corridor’ murals designed to brighten Child Haven — PHOTOS

Smiling animals, from camels to unicorns to frolicking flamingos and prancing carousel horses. Rainbows and stars and polka-dot clouds.

Thanks to artist Sush Machida, they're now at home at Child Haven, the Clark County shelter where children go when Department of Family Services officials determine they can't safely stay with their families. 

Machida's hand-painted murals were dedicated Thursday; they take up 2,000 square feet of Child Haven wall space. (And took the artist seven months to complete.)

The mural's title: "Hope Corridor." (Although the images stretch beyond the corridors to include the entry area and waiting rooms.)

"The first time I came through this place it was not happy," says Machida, a Las Vegas-based artist who's represented by galleries around the world, from Los Angeles to New York to Tokyo.

"I feel more responsibility because kids come through here," according to Machida. "These kids, they need to have something happen here rather than a plain wall."

And while "it's very tough for children who are removed from their homes," according to County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, whose district includes Child Haven, "art eases the pain of transition."

Machida beat out 32 other applicants for the Child Haven project. It's the first major art project funded by the Clark County Percent for the Arts program, which the County Commission approved in 2012. (The source of the funding: special ad valorem and room tax revenues.)

The UNLV-educated Machida has painted other murals in Las Vegas, including one in collaboration with fellow artist Tim Bavington for last year's Life Is Beautiful festival.

But "murals in this kind of place," Machida says of Child Haven, "are more about experience than appreciation of art."