Tamara LeRoy

AAD 550

Transmedia Field Guide: Proposal

Mural Art in Public Spaces in Eugene, Oregon

Introduction

During my time in Eugene, I have enjoyed watching murals be painted and created, and have been comforted by their constancy. Eugene has an ever-increasing number of murals in public spaces, both street-side and located within public buildings or private businesses. It is part of what makes Eugene feel like home. They are funded privately, by donation, or with grants or public funds.

 

Opportunities for mural work are specific, and have a unique set of considerations. For outdoor muralists, they would include things like the weather and graffiti, just to name two. For indoor muralists working in public spaces, they often need to allow for these spaces to continue to operate on a day-to-day basis, which include talking with people, answering questions while working, and safety considerations like the use of ladders and step stools, or keeping tools and paint confined to a small, inaccessible area, etc. Further, common painting practices like “prepping the canvas” take on a whole new scope and scale.

 

Muralists also have considerations regarding the public reception of their work. Funders have desires and wishes which translate to constraints, but public perception and reception also plays a significant role in composition. The audience for murals is not people willingly entering a gallery space with the expectation that they will be viewing “art” and that they may or may not like it. The muralist’s audience is simply The Public. Although constraints are generally thought of as limitations, in this case the lack of limitations on who might be viewing the image, when coupled with the public nature of the art also acts as a constraint.

 

Although often viewed as static, murals are often dynamic, and a reflection of their creators and their environments. Buildings change ownership, taggers tag, and murals need maintenance, or suffer the ravages of time. At times, artists themselves recreate their murals for varying reasons; to update, to incorporate current events, to place into practice newly acquired techniques, and more.

 

One example of this is the mural located at 4th and Monroe in the Whiteaker neighborhood by Kari Johnson. This mural has reached iconic status in Eugene, and can easily be found online quickly by doing a basic search for “Kari Johnson Mural.”

 

Having lived in the Whiteaker neighborhood for several years in close proximity to this mural, I have had the experience of watching the mural be painted and repainted several times, including the major re-design of certain spaces and elements, while others remain static. Because this mural is rich with symbolic meaning, these changes are not only aesthetically impactful, they change the tone and timbre of the mural as well. This also means that people who view the mural only once are having a different experience than people who are viewing the mural over a time period that spans one or more of these structural changes. (Photo credit: karijohnsonart.wordpress.com)

 

Another example is that sometimes murals are simply painted over or removed. Several murals that were in the downtown bar formerly known as John Henry’s were painted over when the business was sold and reopened as a sports bar. Another small mural that used to be in the Horsehead Tavern, also located downtown, was accidentally painted over during a repaint.

 

In addition to these dynamic factors, there are also events associated with the local mural art world. Neighborhood art walks often feature muralists as hosts, or murals as part of the walking tour. The Lane Arts Council has, in the past, hosted events such as a bicycle tour of murals as well, and other organizations have arranged semi-private walking tours of local murals.

 

Field guides to murals, which tend toward static, often do not reflect this dynamic nature. Further, I believe at this point that creating a comprehensive guide to murals in Eugene is too large of a task for this project, and owing to the changing nature of the art, quite possible impossible. With those things in mind, I hope to explore combining the use of online open source transmedia tools (such as Google Maps) to create an online space where artists and audiences alike can upload photos and information in a crowd-sourced manner.

 

In creating this field guide, I hope to capture the dynamic nature of the work of muralists, and make it easier for audiences to engage the art in real time.

 

Sources

 

“Kari Johnson.” Kari Johnson. https://karijohnsonart.wordpress.com/ Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

 

“Mural Bike Tour.” Lane Arts Council. http://lanearts.org/mural-bike-tour/ Web. 18 Aug. 2016. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

“Murals & Public Art.” Eugene, Cascades & Oregon Coast. https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/arts-culture-entertainment/murals/ Web. 10 Feb. 2017.

Dan. “The Murals of Eugene Oregon.” The Murals of Eugene Oregon. http://eugenemurals.blogspot.com/ 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.