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SXSW Announces a Couple Hundred More Showcasing Bands for 2010 [Lots of Austin Bands in the Mix]
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Preview: Legs Against Arms EP Release [Club de Ville / Saturday]
Pecan Street Project Gets $10.4 Million Stimulus Grant
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A few people stopped by during the project and asked to be included in the mural; some even wanted to help paint. One day Gillespie came back from lunch to find an unexpected swath of green on his mural. Someone had picked up a paintbrush and drawn a wide line across his textured green lawn. And everyone wanted to voice their opinion. “Because it's for the public,” said Gillespie, “they feel the need to share that opinion with me. Sometimes they are not very positive.”
Public art, by intent, usually strives to connect with the local community in some site specific way. In this case, the bar scene anchors the mural to the northeast corner of 8th and Congress; the activities send connecting threads into the city. There is not much, however, that relates directly to Congress Avenue. In fact, the bright, distinctly South American primary colors and bending shapes counterpoise the drab architecture and straight lines of the downtown grid. If public art should also generate a response, this mural shouts.
Gillespie told me he learned a lot during his six weeks of long days at 8th and Congress. The first was: What was I thinking? He started painting at the end of July, in the middle of Austin’s record breaking heat: 24 days of 100 degrees or more in August. He kept his paints cool by resting them on ice in a bus tray.
He also scrapped and primed the old wall, something he will never do again. He hired a homeless man to help. The guy worked for a little while, then asked for an advance on his $20. As he walked away, Colin McClelland, the owner of the restaurant said, “You’ll never see him again.” Gillespie said, “I figured out later that he made a lot more per hour than I did.”
Thinman: What was the most common question people asked?
Gillespie: When will you be done? What are you painting? Oh, and 'Do you have a dollar?'
Many of the downtown street people would stop by to chat. Some of them look perfectly normal, but after a minute or so, I realized that I should not have said anything. They figured out pretty quickly that I’m kind of stuck here.
Thinman: What was your hardest day?
Gillespie: One day I got up around 3:30 to project a new section of the wall, then painted until almost 9 that night. I intended to take a break in the afternoon, but only took off for a quick lunch.
Thinman: After spending almost two months here, what is your impression of 8th and Congress?
Gillespie: Obvious it now has a personal meaning. It's definitely the brightest damn corner in Austin. If you ever drive all the way down 8th street, it’s gray wall, gray wall, then whoa, what was that? My hope is that it breaks up the monotony.
It will give people something to think about and look at because everyone just walks, head down, going to work because there is nothing to see but concrete. It will show people what Austin's about.
And perhaps a little bit of what Austin’s not about. As Shawn worked Wednesday morning to finish the mural, a man walked by headed toward the Federal Courthouse. He glanced at the mural and commented: “Like your armadillos.” That was code for “at least you added one thing about Texas that I recognize.” Even if everyone has an opinion, at least most focus on the positive.
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Get pictures of it while you can. Someone will soon try to 'make it their own' with graffiti.