The Mural Continues part 13
Today was Community Mural Day at the Belmar Arts Council. The BAC had used our large format printer to reproduce the top part of the mural as an 18' strip, and attached some blue paper along the bottom to represent the underwater portion. It was all set for our guest artists. It just so happened that today was also drop off day for an upcoming kids art show, and many of these children hung around to make some art. A few of the parents joined in, as well as a few BAC members. Maybe 30 or so people contributed pieces to the indoor mural.
My contribution was a sunken boat. The idea came about when I mentioned the mural in one of my classes and a student suggested a sunken ship. Sure, why not? But as the idea settled in I had a more specific thought- my father's boating experiences. He grew up just blocks from Shark River in a typical extended household of the era that included his Sicilian-born grandparents. His grandfather had been a fisherman back in Palermo and taught him everything about fishing. Before long my father had his own rowboat and a small motor to go with it. (he'd move it down to the river each day in his little red wagon) The problem was hurricanes and nor'easters and the effect they have on boats. One of his boats was thrown up and impaled on a post. Another was smashed on rocks. A couple were sunk when storm surges rose higher than the length of his mooring lines, pulling the boats beneath the water. His last boat of his youth was an AMF Runabout motorboat, white hull, red deck, outboard motor. When that one ended up on the bottom of the river, he decided that, with plans to go off to college soon, maybe he should stop buying boats and instead buy a car. I thought that it would be appropriate to put one of his boats down there, and the motorboat seemed ideal. He couldn't dig up a photo on short notice, but he's got great memory for boat details and did some sketches, which I adapted as a drawing, then painted with poster paints. I cut it out, sprayed adhesive on the back, and added it to the mural.
When it was all done, the mural was quite full of a wide variety of sea life. Next up is putting in some sea floor (sand, coral, plants, starfish, shellfish) on the outdoor mural, and deciding where to put the larger items. Then we begin filling in with some of the ideas generated by today's event. We're hoping to have the whole thing done by the beginning of December.
My contribution was a sunken boat. The idea came about when I mentioned the mural in one of my classes and a student suggested a sunken ship. Sure, why not? But as the idea settled in I had a more specific thought- my father's boating experiences. He grew up just blocks from Shark River in a typical extended household of the era that included his Sicilian-born grandparents. His grandfather had been a fisherman back in Palermo and taught him everything about fishing. Before long my father had his own rowboat and a small motor to go with it. (he'd move it down to the river each day in his little red wagon) The problem was hurricanes and nor'easters and the effect they have on boats. One of his boats was thrown up and impaled on a post. Another was smashed on rocks. A couple were sunk when storm surges rose higher than the length of his mooring lines, pulling the boats beneath the water. His last boat of his youth was an AMF Runabout motorboat, white hull, red deck, outboard motor. When that one ended up on the bottom of the river, he decided that, with plans to go off to college soon, maybe he should stop buying boats and instead buy a car. I thought that it would be appropriate to put one of his boats down there, and the motorboat seemed ideal. He couldn't dig up a photo on short notice, but he's got great memory for boat details and did some sketches, which I adapted as a drawing, then painted with poster paints. I cut it out, sprayed adhesive on the back, and added it to the mural.
When it was all done, the mural was quite full of a wide variety of sea life. Next up is putting in some sea floor (sand, coral, plants, starfish, shellfish) on the outdoor mural, and deciding where to put the larger items. Then we begin filling in with some of the ideas generated by today's event. We're hoping to have the whole thing done by the beginning of December.
posted by arrabbiata at 6:33 PM
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