Easthampton, Massachusetts Mural Project

A mural on Cottage Street, across from the old theatre on the side of Whiskerz Pub. Funded by Easthampton City Artswith the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Also sponsored by The Williston Northampton School and Hampton Wholesale Auto, LLC. Above photo by Bob Stern for The Republican.

Here's a bit of random/background stuff (reverse chronology - like some kinda blog or sumpthin'!):

THE UNVEILING: A surprising amount of people showed up. Cool! Ice cream and cake! Cool! Check out that plaque! A few more photos on Flickr, . A few more photos on the ECA blog.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (June 17th): The Republican... another bad phone interview! Ewwww!

PAINTING DAY (June 1): Gosh dang I'm tired. Awesome crew of friends - Matt Dube, Barry Daggett, Sturgis Cunningham, Sarah Smith, Nate Duval, Mister Reusch, Kendra McDade, and Katherine. I can't believe we got so much done in one day. I say again: Gosh Dang. Super-special thanks to Casey & Dave at Manchester Rental for all of their scaffolding hauling and help. Way more photos on Flickr, .

SKETCH DAYS (May 29th & 30th): Sketching took hours. Hours and lots of math. Lots of little tricks and shortcuts I was suddenly recalling from my high school freshman drafting class, back when they still taught kids on Vemco locking ruler arms. Lots of string. Lots of mistakes. I ground down 1.5 pencils and ruined 8 or 9 old Sharpies. Worked half a day on Thursday and all day Friday and still didn't get to some of the tippity-top of the design, but on the upside we did start painting the low stuff. As you can see, the wall is so large, it even makes a Ford Festiva look small. Crazy!

PRIMING (May 17, 2008): Members of the Easthampton City Arts Council primed the ol' wall. The time is nigh. Thanks very much for their hard work. I would've helped but I was wearing a nice shirt. Cellphone photos by Sarah S. More photos on the ECA Blog.

COLOR TEST (May 27th, 2008): Workin' it out on a hunk of sheetrock. Lots of trips to Florence Paint to buy them lil' sample jars. Getting that tan/beige color turned out to be a big pain in my butt. Benjy Moore, ya'all!

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (Jan 19): I have never been the subject of a telephone interview, and I've got to admit, I'm terrible at it. I blabbed about myself for twenty minutes, and the reporter wisely distilled my ramblings down to the phrase "it's totally cool." This article resulted in lots of opinion-stating over at the ever-openminded Masslive forums. I saved some of the funnier ones, which are at the bottom of this page.

PROPOSAL (late '07): This is my proposal mockup image, bodged together in Photoshop over a photo provided by ECA. It proved to be a distorted perspective photo, so there were certain things that needed changing when paint finally started hitting the wall.

SKETCH (late '07): Here's my initial sketch. Sharpie pens over a bad copy of the above photo because my printer was running out of ink.

VANDILISM! - Comments From Online Forums Far & Wide

"less than mediocre" - 00013

"I know what is appealing to some isn't appealing to all, but in my opinion, the proposed artwork (?) that is going to be displayed on the side of Wiskerz Pub will be an eyesore. I know the merchants on Cottage Street have worked hard to bring the street to what it is now, but to cover an entire side of a building with what looks like nothing more than graffiti is not going to do a thing for the area or Easthampton." - FreedomMom

"it's ugly" - fizzar

"Looks like a sweet design" - Mr Blonde

"The particular graphic design seems more suited to be shown on a smaller scale–perhaps on the cover of a brochure for Easthampton. These large jumbled letters will be mostly meaningless and confusing to drivers-by. I think that to please the majorityin a fairly traditional New England community like Easthampton, a design that is in keeping with the traditional tone of the town would be more accepted and appropriate."

"It seems like it is more inner city 1960’s urban renewal, than small “town” mural."

"Lets see how many accidents it causes" - newowner1

"I think the mural will look nice. I live in that part of town & am delighted at how nice the Cottage St area has become. I love that’s it becoming such a creative and funky street with great little independent shops, and hope this trend continues. Public art will make it an even more intersting area."

"I lke it and I think it meshes well with the art atmosphere."

"Mural---Disgusting !!!!" - watchem

"The mural is very handsome and well suited for the location. Should be nice when it’s finished, in person." - James R (via Art Parlor)

"this mural will brings thousands to E'ton, somewhat like the healing water of Lourdes does" - farandaway

"THAT IS SO UGLY!" - bubbleheaded

"Make Easthampton look bad!!!" - zippenby

"it's done with flair." - coyneup

"come out of the bar, about 12:30 am, in the dark, and it`ll probably look great" - newowner1

"came out killer, great work" - derekdeal

"The only thing "Easthampton" about the mural is the way it abstractly says it, although it imparts a feeling of 'inner city Chicago 1978'" - HarleyRdKng

"I especially can't wait to see it in 30 years when its all flaked off and bleached by the elements and looks like shit." - crosshair

"I haven't seen anything like this since the Bronx in 1975" - some dude

"LOVE IT!" - orangecream

"vandilism" - newowner1

Tempest in a Teapot - http://www.artwalkeasthampton.org/artsnewsletter/

"In search of the mythical unicorn, so something equally rare, public art that everyone can agree on... The Easthampton forum on MassLive has been crackling with comments about the selection of a mural design to go on the side of Whiskerz Pub on Cottage Street. The project will begin in the spring.

Just like the transitory fit of pique over the installation of nude sculptures outside the old Northampton Courthouse, this too shall pass. Public art is like all art, it's a subjective take. People decorate the inside of their homes differently, so it's not to be expected that all will agree on how to decorate their community. What's important is that it happens. More voices and expressions of art is better than fewer, or none. Whining is easy, doing is hard.

We tip our hat to Tom for putting in the time to develop a proposal and hope he keeps his chin up (while keeping his head down) during the process. Calmer seas are ahead."


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