City pier murals turn heads
As Washington Street rubberneckers have no doubt noticed, local artists are nearing completion of the “Peer to Pier” murals under the I-64 interstate bridge.
Artists have until September to complete designs but many seem poised to beat that deadline by more than a month.
Barrie Kaufman is almost finished with her Native American-inspired mural, “A Good Place to Plant Corn.”
“I wanted to do something Native American. I wanted bright colors and I wanted a female,” Kaufman, an art teacher at Mountaineer Montessori School in Kanawha City, said.
Her design features a woman in flowing Native American garb, her feet in the Kanawha River, with stalks of corn surrounding her on all sides.
“She’s probably a combination of a bunch of different kinds of tribes,” Kaufman said of her eight-foot-tall woman.
While she’s done most of the painting alone, Kaufman also has enlisted the help of her young art students.
Brothers Jonathan Harris, 4, Nicholas, 10, and Blake, 8, along with their friend T.J. Salango, 9, helped Kaufman sling paint Wednesday afternoon. Kaufman’s friend Nancy Johnson also helped out.
“It’s fun to sit here and people drive by and give us the thumbs up,” Johnson said.
She said she’s also seen several car accidents during her time under the bridge. Kaufman said the murals are turning driver’s heads, but haven’t caused any wrecks.
“My funniest story is, this guy drove up with a car full of paint and asked me to paint his bumper. I said no,” Kaufman said.
The project started as part of the city’s FestivALL activities, sponsored by the city’s Strong Neighborhoods Task Force.
Lori Brannon, a neighborhood planner with Charleston’s Planning Department and project manager for the pier project, said she’s only heard positive responses to the murals.
“The artists have all told me people are stopping by, giving them great comments, that they’d like to see more of it,” she said.
The city is interested in sponsoring more murals if funding is available, Brannon said.
Artists submitted proposals in March and a selection committee picked the designs in April. The committee chose 10 designs to cover the 10 interstate piers along Washington Street.
Charleston artist Charles Hamilton just started his column last week but hopes to have it finished by the end of next week.
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