Hallowell Mural

by Chris Cart | American

Author: admin

  • mural material suppliers

    mural material suppliers

    Mural info and supplies

    The two key suppliers of exterior mural products and information for the Polytab technique are Golden Acrylics and Nova Color Paints.

    For the Hallowell mural I used Golden Acrylics products from start to finish—with the exception of the Polytab canvas and the Sherwin Williams primer.

    Golden Paint Company is an excellent resource for information about paints, materials and processes of painting exterior murals. And the people who work at Golden are no end of help with technical issues of paint and their adhesives and varnishes.

    The Philadelphia Mural Arts program and several of their artists were very helpful in the creation of this mural.

    Golden Acrylics

    Heavy body acrylics

    DickBlick.com

    Polytab Canvas

    QST.com

    Recommend Palette for exterior murals

    palette info

    Painting exterior murals info

    Exterior mural

    GoldenPaintWorks

    Mural supplies

    Golden Paint Info

    Paintworks info

    Golden Resource Page

    Links to resources

    Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

    MuralArts.org

  • mural process

    Polytab Technique

    (written by Chris Cart)

    The Hallowell mural was created using what is called the Polytab Technique. This is mural process developed by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program so that large exterior murals could be painted inside and then adhered to masonry walls when complete.

    Summary of the process:

    The Polytab fabric is first primed, and cut into manageable sized pieces. Then the artist or artists, (in this case just me, the artist Chris Cart) paint the mural on the primed canvas. When the art is completed the finished canvas pieces are glued to the exterior masonry wall and smoothed in, abutting the edges of the various pieces to complete the mural. Then the final is varnished for permanence.

    Note: This method is sometimes called the Parachute Cloth technique. However this is a misnomer as the Polytab “canvas is not at all like traditional cloth used ror parachutes.

    Polytab

    THE MATERIAL:
    Polytab is a non-woven (no warp or weft) synthetic fabric (sometimes called Parachute Cloth.) The material is very light, lighter than canvas and is traditionally used in the garment industry as an interfacing fabric.

    The fabric is tough but thin and when adhered to a wall it takes on the texture of the substrate—for example, when glued to a brick wall the mural takes on the appearance of having been painted directly on the brick. For several decades Polytab has been widely used for large public mural art projects like the Hallowell Mural.

    It is distributed by QST and STC-QST out of Los Angeles.

    Product name is Polytab20 Style # 320 and is available in 46” width or 60” width. Each roll contains 250 yards. Inquire with the vendor about pricing.

    A 250 yard roll of Polytab material.

    Jen Greta Cart, the artist’s wife helping with the priming of 700 square feet of canvas.

    priming the canvas

    The Polytab material needs to be primed prior to painting. The non-woven fabric is very absorbent and would be very difficult to paint on without filling the fabric “threads” with primer. For the Hallowell Mural I used Sherwin Williams best primer. Other artists have used a 50/50 mix of acrylic medium and acrylic gesso.

    We ended up priming both sides of the canvas to even out the paint tension on the material to avoid curling, but I think this may have been overkill. In any case I ended up with a very nice surface to paint on.

    Priming 700 square feet of canvas was a several day project—letting each batch of canvas squares dry before storing.

    NOTE: For the Hallowell Mural I cut the canvas into 24-five by 5 and a half foot “squares”—six rows of 4 canvas pieces per row, to make up the full 28 x 24 foot mural. The top and bottom canvas rows were a tad shorter than the full 5 foot wide of the Polytab off the roll.

    The five foot square-ish pieces were a manageable size for later in the gluing on the wall process. Anything bigger might have been a real problem, juggling glue, mural fabric and any wind blowing by. As it was installation was fine.

    However, for my next large mural I will plan on leaving the canvas in larger pieces while I am painting the mural, so I have less edges, and then cutting into smaller pieces for the installation day.

    It turned out to be a bit of a task to line up the various edges of the canvas pieces as I was painting the mural. It would have been okay had I worked methodically from top to bottom, finishing each section as I went.

    However, this did not work as planned. Mid way through painting of the mural, several of our local historians brought up key pieces of Hallowell history I felt I could not leave out. This necessitated a fairly major redesign of the mural to fit in the new chapters of history. So there was a lot of juggling of mural canvas sections. Lining up the painted edges of faces and such was important.

    An early stage of the mural showing some of the pieces lined up on the studio floor.

    firehouse studio

    The City of Hallowell kindly offered the second floor of the old Hallowell Firehouse, on the corner of Second Street and Perley’s Lane as my mural studio for the duration of the time I worked on the mural.

    Jen and I built a temporary, freestanding plywood wall in the large room to use as my large mural easel.

    The mural began as tons of sketches in my drawing pads and lots and lots of research deciding what to include. You can see some of the many drawings here.

    Once I began painting, though I did not work full time it was certainly a solid chunk of each week. This turned into a huge project, weaving all the chapters of Hallowell’s story together.

    Most of my many murals have been months long projects. This Hallowell mural took much longer, partly due to some interruptions of COVID and a major redesign part way through the project to add new parts of the Hallowell history, but also because there was jsut so much to include.

    Chris Cart working on the mural.
    Chris Cart working on the mural.

    The brick wall section where the mural is installed was skimcoated to provide a smooth surface as a substrate for the mural. The mural was to be installed in September of 2022 but concrete skim coat took longer to cure than anticipated and the weather got too cold for the mural adhesive.

    So the mural was rolled and stored until June of 2023 when Jen and I went up in the aerial lift and glued the canvas to the wall. You can read a detailed account if the installation here.

    mural adhesive

    We used Golden Acrylics mural adhesive for the installation on the wall. This is a thick paste glue used much like wall paper paste to stick the mural to the wall.

    The adhesive is an acrylic medium that contracts as it dries and suck the canvas into the wall texture.

    We used large brushes to apply the adhesive from teh 5 gallon buckets to the rough concrete wall. It took 18 gallons of glue to mount the entire mural.

    Then we stuck the canvas pieces to glued area of wall, being careful to abut the edges to line up the paint. And then we smoothed the canvas to get rid of air bubbles and lumps of glue. Smoothing out the air pockets is very important to ensure proper adhesion of the mural to the wall.

    applying the glue
    the final varnish

    varnish

    Prior to installation the finished canvas was first top coated with an isolation barrier acrylic varnish to protect the paint layer during the installation…This is just a layer of clear soft acrylic medium. This adds a layer of protection to the paint during the installation process.

    Once the mural was installed I spent an afternoon on the lift doing a few touch-ups.

    The we applied a thick coat of Golden Acrylics’ MSA (mineral spirit acrylic) mural varnish.

    Chris Cart doing a few last minute touch-ups after the week long installation.
  • and a bit with dogs

    and a bit with dogs

    and last but not least…

    No mural is complete without at least one dog. This mural has three #119. Alan Stearns and Austin Brown of Hallowell were very generous donors to the mural project. Three Airedales are included in the mural. At left are Rosie and Fergus running with the young man.

    Rosie, Fergus, Rufus and now Ace have been great dogs and wonderful, just up the hill neighbors.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Below is Fergus, waiting patiently as the artist painted his portrait in the mural.

  • Sponsors

    Sponsors

    a public mural


    The Hallowell Mural is a publicly funded mural with over 100 generous donors who helped buy the paint, canvas, varnish and keep the artist going over the years of work. Begun in 2018 as an idea over dinner, the mural was finally installed at 89 Water Street, Hallowell, Maine in the summer of 2023 with great fanfare and a celebration with our Mayor George Lapointe, Representative Dan Shagoury and Maine’s Governor Janet Mills all giving talks.

    We couldn’t do it without our Sponsors. Thank you!

    major sponsors

    organizations

    major individual sponsors

    individual sponsors

    Major Sponsors

    Grants by:
    Maine Arts Commission
    Maine Community Foundation
    Elsie & William Viles Foundation
    Kennebec Savings Bank

    Other organization sponsors:
    Vision Hallowell
    Row House Inc
    Ian Parker Foundation
    Arts & Cultural Committee
    Hallowell Board Area of Trade

    Ray Valle, a major donor is shown as an Atlas sculpture.

    Major individual sponsors

    Ray Vallee · E. J. Perry · Steven Marson

    Deb Poulin · Chris Vallee · Gary Violette

  • Stevens School

    Stevens School

    Lillian Ames Stevens

    The Maine Industrial School for Girls or the State School for Girls in Hallowell became commonly called the Stevens School after Lillian Ames Stevens #113 who was a staunch supporter of the school and one of the first 5 trustees in 1885. The school functioned from 1875 to 1920.

    While by today’s standards the treatment of the girls might be considered harsh, at the time of its creation the school was considered progressive and a big step forward in its kindness toward “wayward girls”.

    The stated purpose of the school:

    “. . .designed as a refuge for girls between the ages of seven and fifteen years, who, by force of circumstances or associations, are in manifest danger of becoming outcasts of society. It is not a place of punishment, to which its inmates are sent as criminals by criminal process– but a home for the friendless, neglected and vagrant children of the State, where under the genial influences of kind treatment and physical and moral training, they may be won back to ways of virtue and respectability, and fitted for positions of honorable self support and lives of usefulness.”

    The little bronze “water girl”, #113, as she is know was originally dedicated in honor of Lillian Ames Stevens. I visually quote it here as a way to remember Stevens’ part in what we now call Stevens Commons in Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Stevens Commons

    The various brick buildings of Stevens Commons were once part of the Maine Industrial School for Girls or Stevens School and the entire campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    The old brick buildings of the original campus have now been beautifully restored by Mastway Development, LLC of Winthrop, Maine and are currently used by local business and dormitories for students of University of Maine, Augusta.

    The bronze statue of the “water girl” can now be seen in entrance of the Portland Public Library.

    photo circa 1920 from Maine Memory Netowrk.
  • Ian Parker Foundation

    Ian Parker Foundation

    an old soul

    The Ian Parker Foundation #94 was set up in memory of much beloved Hallowell musician Ian Parker.

    The Ian Parker Foundation is a 501(c)(3) corporation and gifts to it are fully tax deductible. The Foundation supports local live music, musicians and music students.

    The Ian Parker Foundation gave a generous grant to support the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Ian William Parker (Oct. 5, 1983-Feb. 28, 2011)at his home in Machias. He was a musician, beginning his career performing as a solo artist throughout the state of Maine, and was an integral vocalist/ guitarist in various bands including the popular bands “Rumble Strip” and “The Returnables.” Ian was also a recording session musician and played on recordings for numerous talented Maine artists.

  • musicians

    musicians

    Steve Vallani, bass in hat and sunglasses; Dave Wakefield, harmonica; Alfred Lund background drumming; Marcia Gallagher, keyboard; lower left Christine Poulson singing and Pat Pepin, sax; Steve Jones upper right profile.
    Ian Parker holding guitar neck ; Jane Burke, artist dancing with two-tone hair: Cary Colwell in black hat; Bob Colwell at keyboard; Roger Sampson playing guitar; Naoto Kobayashi foreground Taiko drumming.

    ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

    There are far too many musicians known in Hallowell to count let alone include on one small section of wall. But music is central to Hallowell’s daily life with our musicians playing at restaurants, bars and our annual festivals.

    it would have required several walls this size to do justice to all the musicians who play in Hallowell. These musicians will have to stand in for all the rest.

    artist, Chris Cart

    the musicians listed

    Marcia Gallagher, #80, has gigged in rock bands, soul bands, and with jazz combos. She performs solo as a keyboard/vocalist in her hometown of Hallowell and environs. She has been an accompanist, organist, and musical director for theater groups around the region.

    With a career that spans over 40 years, Pat has worked as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and teacher.

    Alfred Lund, #81, is a percussionist who gigs with many Maine bands. He creates his own instruments from his custom cajon made from a Klipsch speaker box to ashiko drums fashioned from local woods.

    Dave Wakefield, #82, sax, harmonica, plays with many of the best Maine bands.

    Steve Vellani, #83, started playing in the Gardiner Common as a teenager. He spent time playing bluegrass mandolin and guitar in Cape Cod before moving to California to launch his first band, Walking Wounded. Then time playing in Cambridge and Sonoma Valley and back to the Cape, finally settling in Hallowell in the ’80’s wiht his wife Barbara to raise their family.

    He and Jeff Farnsworth started the the well-known Weasles, then later Vellani launched the Rolling Blackouts, and began the long time tradition of “Hallowell does…” concerts, Hallowell does Neil Young, Hallowell does Tom Petty…

    And as he says, “all along playing solos and duos, and really with whoever will have me.” And plans to continue until the fingers no longer do it.

    Pat Pepin #84, is a distinguished Maine-based artist known for her exceptional skills as a singer and saxophonist. Her shows are filled with a diverse selection of songs, from blues to Americana, along with her clever original compositions.

    Christine Poulson #85, returned to Maine in 2008 and has been active in the local scene since then, covering genres from Americana to jazz. Poulson is mostly known for her rich alto voice, her infectious spirit, and her love of gathering people for common causes.

    Sarah Crosby, #86, member of the Whitefields Band and plays rhythm guitar at venues around New England.

    Katie Daggett,#87, a singer, songwriter and Maine native known for her “unique blend of adult contemporary” music.

    Bob Colwell #88, is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and co-founder of the renowned Boneheads. Bob earns his living completely from music. He operates a busy recording studio called “The Root Cellar” in Hallowell, doing gigs around the state with various bands for over 40 years. Married to Cary Colwell.

    Josh Shain #89, well-known member of the great Hallowell band Scolded Dogs.

    Roger Sampson #90, landed in Hallowell, Maine in 1981, emigrating from it’s once sister city on the coast of Massachusetts, having followed what was left of the breadcrumb trail left behind after the Rolling Thunder Revue passed through town years earlier. Gratefully being adopted by the local music and arts community, he forged deep and lasting musical and personal relationships that continued to his death.

    Naoto Kobayashi, #92, a beloved Hall-Dale teacher of Japanese and founder of the Hall-Dale Taiko drumming club.

    Ian Parker, #94, a beloved local musician who died far too young. A foundation was set up in his name to help young musicians. Ian Parker Foundation.

    Kenny Cox, #114, Maine musician all his life playing in any number of bands, Hole in the Wall Gang, the Band from Uncle, Neat & Clean… He is well remembered for his weekly winter gigs at Sugarloaf, and his Sunday afternoon “Kenny Church” at the Wharf in Hallowell.

    Steve Jones, #79, plays electric and acoustic guitar and is one of Maine’s best known band leaders and musicians. He has toured regionally with The Boneheads, Strangefolk, and Dirigo among many others and been a backing musician for Bo Diddley, The Band’s Rick Danko, and The Marvelettes.

    Scott Eliot, #96, one of the founding members of The Boneheads, one of Maine’s most respected musicians.

    Brett Shain, #98, a lifelong musician and soloist in the legendary musical city of Hallowell, Maine. 

    .Roger Sampson upper right; Josh Shain upper middle; Steve Vellani, upper right; Bob Colwell at keyboard; row of singers: Katie Dagget, Sarah Crosby, Christine Poulson and Pat Pein on sax; Kenny Cox, lower right.
    Steve Vallani bass in hat and sunglasses; Dave Wakefield, harmonica; Alfred Lund background drumming; Marcia Gallagher, keyboard; lower left Christine Poulson singing and Pat Pepin, sax; Steve Jones upper right profile.

    spirit of the town

    Anne Mckee #4, is the young musician playing her violin up near the top of the mural.

    She is an extraordinary violinist and a member of Bay Chamber Faculty, from Hallowell, Maine.

    Anne was a part of the mural from the earliest sketches.
    Why is she playing her violin sitting high on the projecting beam? I’m not sure, except that having her perched way up there somehow, to me, captured Hallowell’s spirit.

    artist, Chris Cart

    From Bay Chamber website:

    “Anne McKee (violin) hails from Hallowell, ME where she began playing the violin at age four. She recently completed her Master of Music degree at Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Dr. Katie Lansdale.

    Some of her musical accolades include first prize in Midcoast Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, second prize at Peter E. Tannenwald Young Artist Competition, and finalist in Boston Conservatory’s all-school concerto competition. In addition to long-term study with Betsy Kobayashi, Lydia Forbes, and Eva Gruesser, Anne has taken masterclasses with Sergiu Schwartz, Alexi Kenney, Grigory Kalinovsky, and Joseph Lin, as well as members of the Ying, Jupiter, Lydian, and Ariel Quartets. She has enjoyed attending Bowdoin International Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Promisek Bach+ Workshop, and Harvard Music Festival.

    Most recently, Anne was invited to perform at Music From Salem (NY) as one of two Emerging Artists in their summer concert series.”

    https://baychamber.org/faculty-data/anne-mckee

  • Vaughan stream

    Vaughan stream

    power from water

    The Vaughan Stream, located in Hallowell, Maine, was owned by the Vaughan Family.

    At various times there were three dams on the Vaughan Stream generating power for various mills. One of the dams was the Wire Mill dam, which was located a few feet above what is now the now large stone arch bridge.

    The arch bridge was completed in 1930, replacing the wooden bridge that had been part of the Wire Mill dam.

    The stone dam we still see today is the Stickney & Page dam constructed in 1871. It replaced a earthen dam that had been built in 1849. The Stickney & Pages dam created Cascade Pond, a reservoir to provide a more constant source of water power to the mills downstream when Vaughan stream was low. When the stream was dried up, the factories were then powered by steam engines.

    The various mills on Vaughan stream powered by the dams used Penstock power turbines to generate the power for the millwork.

    The river/stream in the mural is symbolic of either the Kennebec or Vaughan stream. It holds a central location in the mural to show their importance to early Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    mills on the stream

    The Milliken Sawmill used the energy from Vaughan steam and was located just south of the Fuller Foundry on Sheppard’s Point. The area became known as Milliken’s Crossing at the southern end of town.

    There were 9 mills on Vaughan Stream over the years providing lumber, wire, flour, sandpaper, oil cloth, linseed oil and even the first electricity to Hallowell.

    Ice was cut from Cascade Pond during the winter months, stored in a huge ice house at Sheppard’s Point, where Vaughan Stream meets the Kennebec, and then shipped down river to fill ice boxes in Boston and points south during the warmer months.

    Milliken Sawmill
  • Vaughan Woods

    Vaughan Woods

    carriage and walking trails

    The Vaughan Woods, sometimes locally called Hobbitland, is a 160 acre preserve in Hallowell

    Vaughan Woods is a popular trail system in the heart of historic Hallowell.

    Designed for recreation and nature appreciation by the Vaughans in the early 1900s, classic stone bridges, picturesque waterfalls, and a wild meadow make these some of the most unique walking trails in Maine. Hundreds of visitors come to Vaughan Woods each day, a testament to its popularity. Nicknamed “Hobbitland” by local residents, it is a place of stunning beauty and natural wonder.

    Owned and managed by the non-profit organization Vaughan Woods & Historic Homestead, Vaughan Woods is protected by a conservation easement through The Kennebec Land Trust and contains approximately 3 miles of trails that vary in width and degree of difficulty for walking.

    quoted from the Vaughan Homestead website.

    I have spent countless hours walking and painting in these woods.

    artist, Chris Cart

    winter walk

    This is a painting I did years ago from the little brook next to the stone bridge near the big dam.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Sunday Walk depicts the Cart’s beloved Labrador Retriever  running in the snow in the Maine woods.  The original watercolor painting was included in art writer Carl Little’s book, “The Art of Maine in Winter” along with paintings by dozens of other Maine artists including Jamie Wyeth, Rockwell Kent and Winslow Homer.

  • Wabanaki/Wôban-aki nation

    Wabanaki/Wôban-aki nation

    13,000 years

    The Wabanaki (Wôban-aki) #112 people have lived in the Kennebec valley, from the head waters to the sea, for over 13,000 years.

    The Wabanaki nations include the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and Abenaki. The term “Abenaki” has been wrongly used over the years to describe all the Wabanaki people. It is a mistranslation of the original Wôban-aki, meaning People of the Dawnland, the First Light or East, a term that refers to both the people and the land.

    While not an original term describing a certain tribe of people, over the centuries “Abenaki” came into common usage describing native tribes from central Maine west as far as the Hudson River and Lake Champlain.

    reference: The Wabanaki of the Kennebec

    The Wabanaki I placed in the forefront of the mural in a relatively large area of canvas, out of respect, to show they were the first to live this land.

    artist, Chris Cart

    sacred place of rippling waters

    The Wabanaki communities identified themselves with the rivers they lived on or with the lands along that river. The word Kennebec derives from the original Kwenebek or /kínipekʷ/ meaning deep river.

    There was a large Wabanaki gathering place known as Koussinok, meaning sacred place beside the rippling waters, just above the “head of tide” of the Kennebec at the small rapids in what is now Augusta. Wabanaki people would gather in Koussinok in the warm months to grow foods they would use throughout the year. This land was sacred to the Wabanaki of the area as it was where their ancestors had long been buried.

    The Wabanaki traditionally have a deep kinship with the land, waters and other beings with whom they share the forests, hills and rivers.

    detail from “Kennebec” mural by C Cart at Capital Judicial Center, Augusta, Maine.