2023, Art, Uncategorized

Public Art

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The main north-south highway route through my town sports a deep underpass beneath the east-west rail tracks that pass through the middle of town. It is prone to flooding, and for many years it was the only way to get from the north side of town to the south side of town when a train was passing.

The underpass has large cement walls. About 10 years ago a civic minded friend, with the blessing of the City and State authorities, commissioned a California mural artist to paint the sides the the underpass. He painted regional images, like Ukrainian dancers, rodeo cowboys, wheat fields, and Badlands on the cement walls. It was really lovely.

Over the years, moisture has leached through the paint and it has become unstable. The paint was peeling off with no way to restore the images. There was surprisingly very little vandalism, I should add. A couple of weeks ago, the city closed the underpass and painted over the murals with white paint. It was sad, but there wasn’t anything else to do. I wonder how much public art we have lost over the centuries due to problems like this.

What are your favorite public art works? What would you want to paint on a mural?

42 thoughts on “Public Art”

  2. It seems like murals are becoming popular in the river towns around here. Faribault has a number of them; some are painted by a high school friend of mine, Jeff Jarvis. Most depict historic scenes, places, or people. I love it. There are a few in Northfield too. Red Wing also has some murals.

    I love the old barn poetry on the sides of red barns in the Red Wing area. They were done a long time ago and there was some kind of agreement that they would not be repainted. There are three barns that I know of and the poetry has almost completely faded from one of them. I’m not sure who to attribute the poetry to, but it seems Longfellow-ish. I wish it could be repainted. It’s really beautiful.

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  3. The liquor store near my house has for many years sported murals on two of the four sides of the building. They’ve even repainted murals a couple of different times, I assume as the old paint probably started to chip away. Now they’ve moved a couple of blocks down to a brand new building that they spent almost a year building. It’s a gorgeous building but I don’t see any place where we’re gonna be able to have murals anymore. Boo hoo.

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  4. Mother Nature decided to decorate with about 5 inches of snow overnight. It is to snow all day and all night tonight. We could get another 8 inches My work is closed, so I have a snow day.

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  5. I love the paintings on sidewalks (shared on social media), that are often optical illusions – someone crawling out of a hole in the ground… The ones I’m thinking of are so realistic looking. Later I’ll see if I can find one to post.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons

    Renee, I am awaiting your snow report because your experience could be ours, as well. Old Man Winter looms.

    This is a great follow up to the discussion yesterday about college, public sponsored art activities, and immigration. Fountain HIlls, AZ where we wintered for 8 years has a great deal of sculpture featured around town. They claim over 150 pieces. My favorite is the horse, but so far I have not found a linkable picture of that. Here is the sculpture garden across the street from our former condo.

    https://www.fountainhillsaz.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6709/Centennial-Circle-Art

    1OT: People keep asking me if I will miss it. I will miss the public art and the winter garden there, as well as our wonderful condo. However, the Arizona allergens caused me a lot of trouble and gave me killer headaches that out-weighed the advantages. The lack of water in the SW also was a negative that will soon cause their housing market to be even more unpredictable than it has been traditional. I don’t miss the financial exposure to the poor public policy there.

    2OT: Phoebe was spayed yesterday and is now living in the Collar of Shame. It will be a long 10-14 days.

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    2. Yes, those painting are amazing. What a great thing to do to beautify downtown Mankato. Those big silos used to be so ugly. The paintings improved that a lot.

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    2. Hans went to see it a couple of days ago with a friend. There’s no intermission, and according to Hans, had he gone alone, he would not have stayed for the duration. He thought it was a good movie, but way too long.

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  13. The frescoes in Pompeii became public after being buried for nearly 2000 years. I’d want significant events in history depicted on the walls of my yuuuge, bigly villa. 45 behind jail bars at the last frame.

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  15. Completely and utterly OT, but I’m posting this because I think it’s an extraordinary interview. It’s an hour and a half long, but It’s worth watching every minute of it.

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