Kirkland Ave Project Video

Check out this
really great video
Henry White of NCTV
made last fall about the
Kirkland Ave Mural Project!!!

FRESH STARTS

Some photos from Saturday's wall priming...

Good Bye Pizza Punx!

Vanessa & Eben rocking it from bottom to top...

M E E T T O M This is Tom, also known as Boxcar. Tom dropped by on Saturday and gave us a hand with painting. Apparently he used to paint murals on commission of "old things, like canons, from the Civil War" on walls in California and elsewhere. He shared stories with us about thos eprojects, and told us a few tips for painting, such as putting water in the "pocket" of the paintbrushes before dipping them in the paint. This, Boxcar explained, would make cleaning the brushes a lot easier later on. He was a great presence during the workday, playing guitar and telling jokes, painting in the wide gaps in the bricks, holding the ladder, and even rummaging around town to find extra containers to pour paint into. He told the rest of us working on the mural that he was determined to "help see this thing through", and that he was happy to be a part of a "community building project." People sure can be great...

UPCOMING WORKDAYS:
Wednesday June 9, 11-3pm : Painting Color Begins!
Thursday June 10, 11-3pm : Painting Color continues...

Upcoming Open Workdays

SATURDAY June 5, 12-2pm : Priming the wall!
WEDNESDAY June 9th, 11-3pm : Painting the mural!
THURSDAY June 10th, 11-3pm : Painting the mural!

I will post more workdays as we go. Of course, no experience is necessary! Bring a friend or two! Come and go as you please! Please wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. Contact me if you have a questions, haley@commonwealthcenter.org . Hope to see you soon!

Ode to the Pizza Punx

Through my work in the alley for the past year and a half, many people have come up to me to tell me their stories about the old mural under the overhang in Kirkland Ave, on the side of Downtown Sounds by Pleasant St. Many refer to it as the Pizza Punx mural (in reference to a scribbled crayon message written over the mural- one of very few cases of graffiti on the wall in a decade and a half!). This work was created collaboratively by a group of students led by Anne Hulley back in May of 1995. Fifteen years later, the mural has started to peel and fade, and the building owner is ready to give the wall a face lift. Though we will be painting over the old mural in order to expand the new one, I am confident the instrument wielding "Pizza Punx" it will live on forever in the legends of Kirkland Ave!

I feel a little funny about painting over something I've always had a certain fondness for in my heart, but in the same vein, I am excited to present an opportunity for the public to see contemporary new art in downtown Northampton. A lot of what I find fascinating about making art in the public sphere is the amount of embodied histories there are in the spaces we choose to focus on. The "Pizza Punx" have certainly added a lot of character to the Northampton urban landscape!

<< Back & Ready for Action! >>

Help us brighten up one of Northampton's best nooks!

The Kirkland Ave Mural Project is getting bigger & better! This June we will be expanding the new mural an additional 20 feet towards Pleasant Street, and we would love your help painting! No experience necessary. To get on the volunteer painter list, or for more information, email me at Haley@commonwealthercenter.org !

Show your support for the project by sponsoring a
Golden Brick!

For only $10 a brick, you can choose a short message of your choice (20 characters or less) to be painted across the bottom of the mural. Sponsor a brick today and help support public art in our community! Pick up a form at the C3 Office (below APE Gallery) or email me.

T H A N K Y O U !

Hello Friends! Well, the mural is still standing proud. I can't help myself but visit it daily, and I don't think I am alone. Kirkland Ave is undoubtedly getting more foot traffic and attention than it has in a while.

Check out my recent radio interview with (the infamous) Bill Dwight here.

On a nice fall day last week, Vanessa, Katherine, and I sealed the mural, but the sealer was a little too thick in some places, resulting in "partly cloudy" conditions. We plan on fixing this next week. If you want to give us a hand, drop me a line!

Here are some more photos from the unveiling & celebration...

I love the way light animates the mural at night...

Eric Hnatow playing/dancing/blowing minds (and cables)...

Eben and myself :-)

(many thanks to Vanessa Vargas for the photos and for all her lovely help during this project!)

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Well folks, the mural is complete.

It's hard to believe that after months of preparation, it took only 3 weeks to paint. And what a gorgeous job everyone has done! I hear echoes of pride and appreciation wherever I go. I've heard gasps of surprise and excitement as people pass and see it for the first time. I am very pleased with how this project has progressed, and am totally thankful for everyone who made this dream a reality. This mural is proof that beautiful things can happen when people work together. It is a testament to the power of community and imagination. It shows us that we can be surprised, challenged, and delighted by our surroundings. It proves that art can transform not only our physical community, but our social one as well. This mural has generated friendships, happiness, discussions, stories, pride, a sense of accomplishment, and new ideas.

The unveiling & celebration last week was great, and a heartfelt thanks goes out to everyone who made it happen and made it so damn fun!
(More pictures to come from the celebration!)

Here are some reactions & responses to the mural and project generated at the celebration from activities there:
-I like the mural because it looks like it's having a pretty good time up there, and also like a mountain.
-It reminds me how AMAZING color is.
-Like Beast.
-Inspired by the birdish monster thing that rules

-I walked in Kirkland Ave once and my feet turned into two pegasuses and flew off, dropping me into a giant plate of spaghetti.
-...Anyway, I finally walked on Kirkland this rainy, chilly evening of Oct 9 2009. I might have been a different person if I had known about Kirkland before...but I won't dwell on that fact. I'm with a new friend, on a new avenue...Kirkland will be in my thoughts.
-I would love to see an outdoor cafe there and lovely landscaping along the spiral staircase that dwells there now.
-Hey, so this may sound strange but I am deeply in love with your paint. I need to take it out to dinner. With of course your bequest. My intentions I assure you are honorable, you need not worry about the sanctity if your dear one. So I will call upon you at a reasonable hour forthwith and ask you with humility for your paints hand in this unholy union, Lord of Kent.

Here are some ideas for a title for the mural (in list form):
* you have hair like starlights * Hope For Piss Alley * Quintupiance * A Prize of Peace from the Moon * Alley Cascade * "you know how I know you are gay?" * Journey to Love * Buncha Crazy Crap on a Wall * Take me to your dealer! * Monster Truck * Fingers and Toes * Party Time, Excellent * A Human Mind * Saturn Returns * Hatin-Multidimensional * Blaine Comes for a Visit * Spaghetti Sunrise * Cookieface * A Smile Costs Nothing * Yooooo Brooooo !!!! * It's Happening in the Alley! *Alley Ants * Guardianway * The Spirit of Community Wall * Hungry, Hungry Hippo * Quetzacoatl Goes To New York * The Un-nameable * A Colored Mirror * Rhizome(s): (they're horitzonaltal root structures and also a philosophical theory of non-heirarchal/non-binary systems that spread out like a community) *Lagueberde, bagedrebre, bredegredre * The Bubble * 8 year olds w/crayons drawing ninja turtles all night * you better let me read these *

We've been getting a lot of press attention. Check out the Sophian's 10/8/09 article and the Daily Hampshire Gazette's 10/9/09 article about the project! Springfield's abc40 also covered the unveiling. Keep your eyes peeled in the Advocate and the Republican this week for features about the project. :-)