After many long hours and days spent over the past couple of years, trying to get murals up in our city, we may be one step closer to seeing a couple come to 'life'. In the past, a few of the stumbling blocks have been the laborious work that goes into a piece, and the significant amount of money it takes to prepare and paint a wall. Enter Max Collins, a young photographer who is adept in the art of creating and adhering larger than life photographs on all sorts of surfaces. I sat down with Max, who just moved back home from Ann Arbor, yesterday to discuss the process, the timeline, the subject matter, the cost and everything else that we would need to pull off a mural or two... that discussion included wall ownership and raising money.
View image
Fortunately, by going the route of adhering photographs (similar to wheat pastes) to large walls, the cost is actually quite affordable, and a couple of the potential monetary sources that have heard the pitch before (and balked) are actually coming around to this style of mural-making due to it being both cost effective and awe inspiring. After spending an afternoon canvasing the city in search of walls, we have identified a few that we would like to run with. We are in the process of meeting with building owners to discuss the logistics and are pricing out the different walls. If we can pull off a couple of these walls, then all of the past failed attempts will have been worth work and the wait... especially considering the printing technology that is available to us today.
Stay tuned in coming days for developments. If you are a building owner (with a wall in need) and would like more information on the process and the cost, send me an email.
Check out this time lapse video from a smaller installation that Max and friends recently accomplished:
Id rather see a clean blank wall than a mural or graffiti
Yeah, that comment fits right in with a city that has been frequently identified as an artistic and cultural destination. That's like saying I think we have too many hockey rinks.