Westown Mural Commision

May 17, 2009 by chicagopainter

Westown-Mural

Recently I was informed that I have been awarded a commission to do a mural in the Westown neighborhood of Chicago. They were looking for street scenes from their area to be painted underneath a Union-Pacific train bridge just west Chicago and Halstead. My theme is a “Utopian vision of an alternative future” where the area has developed into a green culture. Sponsored by the West-town Chamber of Commerce. Above is a preliminary photomontage of my design. Paint should start going up in July. Stop by and say hello!

Even More Washington,D.C. Mural Conservation

May 12, 2009 by chicagopainter

1880's DC mural

As my friends know I have been spending a lot of time in the last two years working in Washington, DC on some mural conservations working with an Conservator/artist team to conserve some circa 1880′s decorative murals in an executive branch office building near the White House. With Page Conservation.

About the 1940′s the decorations in a whole series of rooms were painted over and by the time we got to them there were about ten coats of paint on them. So basically the process starts by carefully removing the over-paint while trying to save the original layer. Next, the remaining original mural paint is conserved and stabilized with glue and other materials. Then we re-paint the missing areas in, trying to conserve as much of the original paint as possible. We use reversible materials so our work can always be removed.

This differs from a “restoration” which usually means a recreation of old work as opposed to a “conservation”, which actually means to keep as much original work as possible.

in the following gallery which includes several rooms, you can see the beginning stages (where the ceilings are white), intermediate stages, and the completed stages where the original murals look, well, original! Keep in mind everything you see had been completely painted over.

: 1880′s DC mural

Art Prize. Wow! Grand Rapids is strutting out!

May 2, 2009 by chicagopainter

ArtPrize, created by Rick DeVos, a grandson of both the cofounder of Amway and the founder of the Prince Corp is apparently establishing a kind of huge scale people’s choice competition in Grand Rapds, MI. A few years ago I helped paint a Richard Haas designed Mural there and am thinking about creating another public art piece for this competition.

Of course one could argue that even though artprize is offering a few big prizes, basically what they are doing is asking artists to at their own expense to subsidize an art happening for Grand Rapids. I am sure that the many artists who probably will participate will end up in aggregate spending substantially more money than the sponsors. I would prefer to see more, smaller prizes that would give more artists a chance to recoup there expenses.