Awarded Artist Grant: New Murals Downtown

I am honored to have been selected by the City of Jamestown as the official artist to receive a $5,000 grant from Arts Services, Inc (ASI) through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) for the Spring St. Parking Garage Beautification Project (Phase I).

I will be installing three new murals to the exterior of our downtown parking garage. The artwork will be on three separate walls that essentially create a ‘mural wrap’ around the lower corner of the garage on E. 3rd St. and Spring St. The specific outside locations include: the wall hosting the door to the stairwell on E. 3rd St., the ‘first floor’ of the wall featuring the windows of the stairwell on E. 3rd St., and the wall beneath the Lucy ‘Vitameatavegamin’ mural on Spring St.

The open call application required an artist statement, an explanation of interest in the project, written mural concept, history of public art participation and/or installments, ideas for the grant-required focus on community participation, mentions of an implementation team if necessary and lastly a space for questions of my own.

I was notified that I made it to the second round where I was asked to submit an illustrated mockup of the intended murals. I sketched up my composition ideas that supported my previously submitted concept for the design. I attached images of previous paintings I had completed that shared a similar subject matter and showed my techniques as an artist. I also included my desired color palette and photo references for extra detail to support the final look of the murals.

Shortly after I sent in my mural artwork for round two, I received an email congratulating me as the chosen artist for the grant. I was beyond thrilled!

As summer continues on, so does the process of getting closer to beginning the murals. Meetings, paperwork, planning, countless emails, newspaper and online articles are all a significant part of making this beautification project a success. Stay tuned as I will be posting links to articles and other media in my resume under ‘Publications’ and ‘Radio’.

My mural painting process will be recorded to showcase this exciting opportunity. I’m looking forward to sharing a behind the scenes approach to this installation. I will provide links to those videos as they are uploaded onto my social media accounts.

Thank you to all who have reached out and showed their support. Jamestown is a beautiful city, inside and out and I can’t wait to celebrate that! With the addition of my new artwork, I aim to bring even more beauty and color to our downtown. I hope that my murals will bring joy and inspiration to all.

Links:

The Post-Journal Front Page Article [July 2-3, 2022]

WRFA Online Article [July 5, 2022]

WRFA Radio 16:40 - 18:25 minutes in [July 7, 2022]