Yes, all that paint and then some moved from the buckets to the wall using Amanda’s hands to convey her vision of the mural. As you can imagine it is a long process to finish a mural. In addition to the complexities inherent in the art form, weather conditions can easily interrupt the work.
I wrote about how we met the muralist Amanda Hill. We were searching for any new public art in Providence and stopped by the old building facade that hides a parking lot behind it. Both sides of that wall have panels of mural space. As we approached, the artist greeted us and introduced herself as Amanda. We chatted a little, she called a colleague from The Avenue Concept, Nick Platzer, and we enjoyed chatting with them both.
Visits to See the Mural In Progress
During that visit, I was able to watch the artist at work. The scale and perspective of the objects must make getting the right size of everything quite challenging, or it seemed to me. But again, I am not a painter! There are murals in Rhode Island that are much larger than this. Muralists have special skills.
After the initial visit, we went there multiple times and saw Amanda and Nick. Although we visited at weekends, odd times, good weather or not, we never got lucky enough to take a picture of the entire wall because of the cars parked in front of it. We photographed the artist at work, some details, or individual panels. Finally, at the last visit, I photographed each panel from the sidewalk’s edge for vertical panoramic stitching. After I processed each panel, I assembled them in front of the blurred frame of cars parked in front of the mural.
How Do You Look at And See Art
This mural can be viewed as a conflict of joy and vulnerability, danger and serenity, or in many other ways. It also points to the power of symbols in language, written or painted to alter the tensions. It depicts a woman lying down amid nature. Water Lillies float in the water next to her. On the other side is a serpent, a symbol with rich meanings from evil and death to fertility and rebirth. Is she not aware of the snake or aware but not afraid of it for whatever reason? At that time, The Avenue Concept had not announced the arrival of a new mural
The Avenue Concept introduced the new mural, The Serpent, on their website. You will read more about the meaning encoded into the image. However you take it, one thing is certain: It is a gorgeous public art! Thank you, Amanda; thank you, The Avenue Concept.
And, if you visit the mural, you will probably see the scene below with parked cars blocking the full view. Now, drag the slider to the right and experience what my MSXR (mural-sensitive, X-ray) camera records!
Haluk Atamal
It has always puzzled me how these big pictures were painted with tremendous scaling accuracy. Thanks for sharing, Cemal. Beautiful artwork indeed.
Take care and best regards,
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin
Yes, they probably have a reasonable method to maintain the accuracy. Still quite a challenge. Take care, Haluk,
Cemal
Paul White
Very impressive work and talented artist. Your camera magic is fantastic
I totally enjoyed this post
A. Cemal Ekin
She is a talented artist, Paul, you are right. And, the camera magic keeps me going. Glad you enjoyed it. Take care,
Cemal
James Turner
Very nice article on this mural in particular also on Amanda.
A. Cemal Ekin
Thank you, Jim. The mural and its artist deserve the full attention. Take care,
Cemal