Clearly, this isn’t your mother’s house. In more and more city neighborhoods, drawing on the wall is not only welcome. It’s encouraged. Concrete retaining walls. Highway bridge supports. Even the sides of historic brick buildings. No flat surface, it seems, is an impractical canvas these days for some colorful paint, eye-catching imagery, or ‘shouts out’ to community.
We’re not talking about graffiti bombers, spray can art, or the sort of random urban calligraphy that borders on vandalism. But rather carefully planned, financed, and executed wall murals, the type of permanent paintings that showcase local artists, celebrate civic heritage, and enliven the too often grey and grimy urban landscapes.
The concept of wall art is at least as old as the cave paintings at Lascaux, France. Perhaps the popularity of the idea stems from the fact that murals bring art into the public forum more than other types of art, sculpture aside. Today, any respectable city exhibits numerous murals, and Grand Rapids is no exception. Everyone from famous American muralists to kid volunteers is coloring on the city’s walls.
Jenn Schaub, a neighborhood revitalization assistant at Dwelling Place, a nonprofit development firm based in the Heartside district, says murals serve many purposes, from telling a story, to cleaning up a neighborhood, to bringing an artist’s vision to life. So what makes a mural successful?
“It’s good if it makes people stop for a second,” says Schaub.
That's the effect of the mural on the concrete wall in a parking lot at 106 Division, between the Foodsmith and Calvin College’s downtown art facility. The work depicts a neighborhood in which the residents look like a cast of wavy characters from Edward Munch’s famous painting The Scream. It was financed in part by a state grant and painted by siblings Brandon and Stephanie Behning, two local artists, using a mellow pallet of pink, yellow, blue, and green.
Finished in the fall of 2006, the work continues to attract plenty of attention from the locals, Schaub says, and really appeals to the younger crowd of artists taking over the Heartside district.
“It blows my mind how many come and look at the 106 mural,” she says. “People just stand and stare at it. They come out with their cameras and get pictures with it.”
Residents agree that good public art attracts visitors to the area, according to a recent survey conducted by Dwelling Place. The survey also revealed that, while people appreciate a variety of artists and public art forms, what they really want to see is creations from locals like the Behnings.
“Basically,” Schaub says, “what we found was that people were very interested in seeing local artists make work.”
Celebrating GR
Several factors distinguish Grand Rapids as one of the nation’s more attractive mid-sized cities, and there seems to be a mural dedicated to each one.
First, there’s the history. Drivers on the I-196 downtown can’t miss the massive tribute to founder Louis Campau, early civic leader Charles Belknap, and the city’s 1826 founding. This particular piece, first created on the south side of the Belknap neighborhood in 1982, recently received a touchup courtesy of volunteers from the local chapter of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America (PDCA).
We Were There, a commissioned piece painted by artist Tommy Wallace, pays tribute to African American veterans who served in each of the nation’s wars. The piece wraps around a wall at the corner of Goodrich Street and Commerce Avenue.
Jumpin’ Jack Splash, unveiled by public officials earlier this spring at City Hall, depicts the transformation of a giant green frog to a prince, an analogy for Grand Rapids’ ongoing conversion from a small frontier outpost into the modern city it is today. The mural, funded by the Wege Foundation, was painted by local artist Mark Heckman.
Then, there is the distinctly Christian heritage that defines the city. “The Influence of Godly Citizens Causes a City to Prosper” is the message from Proverbs painted on a garage nestled between two ministries at 710 and 724 West Fulton.
Another characteristic that distinguishes Calder City is the commitment to public art. That trait is celebrated on the south side of the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, located at 41 Sheldon, with a colloquy of wide-eyed, brightly colored creatures next to the words “Challenge Expression. Promote Dialogue. Inspire Community.” The piece was created by teens participating in UICA’s ArtWorks program.
Keeping It Clean
Sometimes, the art is historically or morally justified. Other times, it is simply “art for art's sake.” But often times the public works provide a secondary benefit: they help keep the city clean.
“The Belknap mural is definitely nicer to look at than a blank gray wall,” says Jim Bierens, president of the West Michigan PDCA. “It also serves as a hopeful deterrent against graffiti. To some degree, the people who do graffiti tend to find a clean slate to show off their work.”
Indeed, prior to the mural commemorating the city’s founding, the concrete retaining wall paralleling the downtown highway was a favorite spot for graffiti artists. Since the mural was completed, the spray paint tags have become considerably less common. Street artists now seem to respect the public realm.
And that is major reason driving the growing local interest in wall murals. Sure murals tend to capture significant points in history or deliver important messages. But ultimately they are all about staking a claim on civic space, revitalizing neighborhoods that have experienced significant disinvestment, and making the place feel lived in and cared about.
There’s the vibrantly colorful neighborhood scene painted by Americorps and Campfire USA volunteers on a retaining wall near the intersection of Lafayette and Plainfield in the Creston neighborhood.
Over in the Wealthy Street district murals on the Community Media Center and former Rhodes Rib Crib buildings offer vivid, multi-hued tributes to the diversity of the community’s musicians and thespians.
Decorating the lifeless concrete pillars supporting the state’s highways through the central city appears to be an emerging trend. Several years back community leaders painted children, houses, and other images on grey columns supporting I-196 through the Belknap neighborhood. More recently, Rebecca Kenny and Mary Wisnewski completed an al fresco work of sunflowers, rushing water, and grasses on the pillars holding up 131 near Turner Avenue and Fourth Street. The piece will complement a forthcoming rain garden.
A Reason to Return
Award-winning muralist Richard Haas lays claim to perhaps the most prominent of GR wall art. Haas, whose work spans the globe and has been featured in such museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, recently was commissioned by local leaders to create Grand Rapids Furniture City in the Heartside neighborhood.
The time-lapse painting tells the story of the lumber and furniture industry that spurred development in the neighborhood and city through the early part of the 20th century. Haas’ mural is a bit more subtle than many of the splashy pieces seen around town. But the artistic value of the painting, done in a three-dimensional style known as trompe l’oeil, is readily apparent.
The painting appears to be a storefront, which fits in well with Haas’ notion of what a mural should be.
“First of all, it should fit in like a glove fits a hand,” said Haas, formerly of East Lansing, from his New York City studio. “It should look as if it had always been there. It doesn’t disrupt the sensibilities, but it should draw you to it, so that you want to look at it and want to return to it.”
But, as the Dwelling Place survey revealed, it’s the local artists that really attract interest. So mural enthusiasts will want to stay tuned to the corner of Division Avenue and Weston Street. Local favorite Reb Roberts, whose gallery is a bastion of the Heartside arts scene, will be painting on a building there soon.
Bridie Kent, a freelance writer, has lived in Grand Rapids since graduating from Aquinas College in ‘03. She also works as a recruiter for Michigan Community Blood Centers. She wrote about
St. Patrick's Day in Grand Rapids in the March 8, 2007 edition of
Rapid Growth Media.
Photos:
The mural at UICA (Urban Institute of Contemporary Art) - Heartside
A mural dresses up the 196 freeway overpass - Near West Side
Jenn Schaub and Audrey Chapman at the mural at 106 Division Avenue - Heartside
"We Were There" in Heartside
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" at the City-County Building entrance
Mural on the side of Rhode's Rib Crib in East Hills
Richard Haas mural in Heartside
Photographs by Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved