I put together this little video time-lapse of our mural efforts yesterday—Jen and I built the temporary wall/easel in the old Hallowell Firehouse–this is the wall that will hold the mural canvas while I work this summer on the Hallowell Mural Project.
Well, actually this wall only holds about one third of the entire mural–but it is plenty of canvas to work on at one time. We will hang 10 x 23 feet of canvas at a time.
Some parts of the mural will have to be drawn out with all the canvas together so we might lay it out temporarily on a huge floor and mark in key areas that span the full size of the mural. If we do, I’ll takes some pics to show you what I mean.
Exciting day, we started building the mural studio.
Yesterday, finally, Jen and I moved all the fascinating stuff in my new, temporary, Firehouse Mural Studio. The City of Hallowell has allowed me to work in the large second floor room in the old Firehouse. This gives me an 11 x 30+ foot wall to work on large sections of the mural at once. This is going to be wonderful—much bigger than the 10 x 10 foot largest space in my regular studio.
That wall on the second floor was lined with many glass display cases of fascinating old firehouse paraphernalia—and a lot of it heavy. In days of old they built things well. So, with permission from local historians and City powers that be, Jen and I carefully moved everything well away from the “mural” wall. It was a bit of work. But now everything is tucked safely away—ensuring that no Firehouses shall be harmed in the production of this mural.
After moving all the Firehouse stuff, we weren’t tired or anything…nope.
Last night we took a trip to the lumber yard and bought all the supplies for the temporary “mural easel”. Basically, plywood, 12 foot 2 x 4’s, screws and lots of plastic and canvas drop cloths. Today Jen and I will be over at the Firehouse building an 11 x 24 foot temporary plywood wall/easel. This will be free standing—with padded feet to protect the nice floor—and go against the large wall space we cleared yesterday.
Then I will be able to mount my mural canvas on this temporary plywood wall/easel and begin the next months of work on large areas of the Hallowell Mural.
It is an exciting day seeing the Hallowell Mural Project get to this phase—huge new mural easels are very enticing things.
This mural will have over 70 figures, some contemporary, some historical. I have been nailing down poses, stances, finding nuance in the gestures I want. This starts with sketches and scribbles in the drawings pad and moves on to more finished drawings.
I am arranging with models to pose for some people, as stand ins for historic figures. Some people are, of course, around now so I am just drawing them as they are.
For some of the historical figures I have been finding old paintings or vintage photographs to use as reference. And some of the people who will be in the mural have decedents still living here. Where possible I am having these relations pose for their distant relatives.
