It’s difficult to know where to start, when so much time has passed! I have plenty of paintings to share, but I don’t have time to write ten or twelve posts at the moment, so I’ll just skip right to the big news and fill in the gaps later.
Over the next six months or so, I will be working on a public mural for Henpeck Park, in Greece NY. After a period of negotiations, the contract has been signed, the panels are ordered – it’s offical!
Panel 1 : Construction of the Erie Canal in Greece, NY
Click here to read the rest of this post.>>I heard about the call for proposals about a year ago. They were looking for something that would illustrate the historical significance of the canal and or/agriculture in the area. It was a very broad topic, but I love to spin out big complicated ideas, so I had a concept put together pretty quickly: a visual time line of the Erie Canal as it developed in Greece from construction to the present with appropriate tools, transportation and agricultural growth illustrated for each section. I was thrilled when my proposal was chosen!
The theme of a visual time line has stayed the same, but after meeting the board face to face and hearing what they really wanted, the idea was immediately simplified. I broke it down into three of the main stages of the Erie Canal. Panel 1: construction, ca 1820; Panel 2: 1st expansion featuring a mule towed barge, ca 1830; Panel 3: a later expansion showing Junction Lock and a steam powered tug, ca 1920. There are plenty of other details in each section – I’ll describe them more thoroughly as work progresses.
One interesting aspect of this project is that it will be installed under a bridge, on a concrete abutment. Each 8′x12′ section will be painted on MDO panel, a very durable paper-faced plywood, and then screwed onto frames mounted onto the concrete. (A separate surface is the way to go with exterior murals, in most cases. If you ever want to hear a passionate argument against painting a mural directly onto an exterior masonry surface, just give me a call.) There are definitely some logistical challenges, starting with the fact that no land access necessitates a barge to install the panels. But the positives outweigh the challenges, as the painting will be nicely protected from weather and wear while still visible from the park and the water.
I’m pretty excited about another opportunity to immerse myself in the history of WNY and the Erie Canal. If you would like to learn more, I’ll be manning a table at the Annual Greece Groundhog’s Day Festival this Saturday January 30th, talking about the mural to anyone that’s interested. Festivities run from noon to 4pm, so if you’re in the area, stop by! It’s a great family event with games, raffles and demonstrations, all raising funds for the Henpeck Park mural.
[...] in January I shared the news of this public mural commission for Greece, including an image of the sketch for this panel. [...]