Artists begin I-64 murals
June 20, 2011
Artists begin I-64 murals
Chris Dorst
With the help of Marshall University senior art major Brianna Mullins (center), Charleston artist Bernice Deakins has a head start on her historical mural — part of the FestivALL-sponsored Peer to Pier Mural Project along Washington Street beneath the Interstate 64 overpass. Rob Cleland works on his layout at right.
If Charly Hamilton had his way, one of Charleston’s best known plane crashes would soon be memorialized on one of the Interstate 64 bridge supports along Washington Street.
By Jim Balow
The Charleston Gazette
Chris Dorst
Christopher Nelson could use another hand as he applies blue masking tape to his pier from a lofty perch atop a scaffold. A jury picked 10 artists to paint murals on the piers — five on each side of Washington Street.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If Charly Hamilton had his way, one of Charleston’s best known plane crashes would soon be memorialized on one of the Interstate 64 bridge supports along Washington Street.
“I did three designs,” Hamilton said Monday morning at an organizational meeting for the FestivALL Peer to Pier Mural Project.
“They requested historical themes. I did the marijuana plane crashing, with smoke billowing up in the air. I was going to put demons in the smoke, people gathering the marijuana, and marshals running after the people.”
Alas, judges rejected Hamilton’s vision of the infamous June 1979 pot plane crash, in which a DC-6 rolled off the end of a Kanawha (Yeager) Airport runway when its brakes failed, spilling 10 tons of baled marijuana over the hillside and creating a bonanza for bag-toting pot scavengers the following night.
“It was like, ‘I don’t think so,’” Hamilton said of the judges. They also vetoed his image of the Funeral Parade, once a mainstay of the defunct Sternwheel Regatta.
So Hamilton will be painting what should be a safe scene — a Kanawha riverscape with a boat, a train and downtown buildings in the background. If you look closely, he might even include a tiny Funeral Parade, he said.
Peer to Pier organizers gave Hamilton a prime site for his mural — the first pier on the right as you drive under the Interstate toward the West Side. The 10 selected artists checked their pier assignments, along with other details about the project, on Monday.
Though billed as a FestivALL event, the murals do not have to be finished until this fall, FestivALL public arts coordinator Naomi Bays said. West Side Main Street, one of the project sponsors, will dedicate the murals during the group’s annual Octoberfest, she said.
Still, FestivALL-goers who stop by the site are likely to see activity at work this week. Many of the artists began mapping out their work on Monday.
Rob Cleland, a veteran of several public art projects, was already up on his scaffold as the meeting was breaking up, figuring out how to transfer his design to the 4-foot-wide cylindrical column.
“I’ll project it onto newsprint and use a pounce wheel — like a pizza cutter with points.” The wheel will punch small holes in the newsprint as he traces the outline of his design. After attaching the newsprint to the column, “I’ll use a chalk bag. Where the penetrations are, it puts the design on the pier.”
Ian Bode plans to use another system. “I’m going to do the grid, like you see in children’s magazines. I do kind of a comic style. Someone told me it’s like Keith Haring, with a bit of narrative.
“Mine will be on the history of music in West Virginia, starting with bluegrass music — the slaves bring African music, the banjo, mixing with the Irish settlers, and going through Mountain Stage.
“I’m trying to stay away from typical West Virginia history,” Bode said. “It’s interesting. None of the artists did coal, not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
One of the challenges of the pier project is the shape of the piers, several artists said. “You can’t project onto a cylinder,” Cleland said. “It distorts.”
Jeff Pierson, picked for a pier facing the southbound lanes of Pennsylvania Avenue, said traffic signs partially obscure his site. “I was driving by yesterday. So I have to decide where to put my main design.”
Cleland hopes to start painting in a couple of days. “I’ve got my top three pieces projected already. It will be a party … spectacle.”
Reach Jim Balow at ba…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If Charly Hamilton had his way, one of Charleston’s best known plane crashes would soon be memorialized on one of the Interstate 64 bridge supports along Washington Street.
“I did three designs,” Hamilton said Monday morning at an organizational meeting for the FestivALL Peer to Pier Mural Project.
“They requested historical themes. I did the marijuana plane crashing, with smoke billowing up in the air. I was going to put demons in the smoke, people gathering the marijuana, and marshals running after the people.”
Alas, judges rejected Hamilton’s vision of the infamous June 1979 pot plane crash, in which a DC-6 rolled off the end of a Kanawha (Yeager) Airport runway when its brakes failed, spilling 10 tons of baled marijuana over the hillside and creating a bonanza for bag-toting pot scavengers the following night.
“It was like, ‘I don’t think so,’” Hamilton said of the judges. They also vetoed his image of the Funeral Parade, once a mainstay of the defunct Sternwheel Regatta.
So Hamilton will be painting what should be a safe scene — a Kanawha riverscape with a boat, a train and downtown buildings in the background. If you look closely, he might even include a tiny Funeral Parade, he said.
Peer to Pier organizers gave Hamilton a prime site for his mural — the first pier on the right as you drive under the Interstate toward the West Side. The 10 selected artists checked their pier assignments, along with other details about the project, on Monday.
Though billed as a FestivALL event, the murals do not have to be finished until this fall, FestivALL public arts coordinator Naomi Bays said. West Side Main Street, one of the project sponsors, will dedicate the murals during the group’s annual Octoberfest, she said.
Still, FestivALL-goers who stop by the site are likely to see activity at work this week. Many of the artists began mapping out their work on Monday.
Rob Cleland, a veteran of several public art projects, was already up on his scaffold as the meeting was breaking up, figuring out how to transfer his design to the 4-foot-wide cylindrical column.
“I’ll project it onto newsprint and use a pounce wheel — like a pizza cutter with points.” The wheel will punch small holes in the newsprint as he traces the outline of his design. After attaching the newsprint to the column, “I’ll use a chalk bag. Where the penetrations are, it puts the design on the pier.”
Ian Bode plans to use another system. “I’m going to do the grid, like you see in children’s magazines. I do kind of a comic style. Someone told me it’s like Keith Haring, with a bit of narrative.
“Mine will be on the history of music in West Virginia, starting with bluegrass music — the slaves bring African music, the banjo, mixing with the Irish settlers, and going through Mountain Stage.
“I’m trying to stay away from typical West Virginia history,” Bode said. “It’s interesting. None of the artists did coal, not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
One of the challenges of the pier project is the shape of the piers, several artists said. “You can’t project onto a cylinder,” Cleland said. “It distorts.”
Jeff Pierson, picked for a pier facing the southbound lanes of Pennsylvania Avenue, said traffic signs partially obscure his site. “I was driving by yesterday. So I have to decide where to put my main design.”
Cleland hopes to start painting in a couple of days. “I’ve got my top three pieces projected already. It will be a party … spectacle.”
Reach Jim Balow at ba…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102.
