Last month on my way to LES galleries I ran into an artist painting a mural on storefront gates at Orchard and Grand. The artist was Marcellus Hall, a DART Q&A featured artist, Book Prize winner and longtime subscriber. Here's his story about the mural, told in Q&A form this week:

What is there about mural painting that engages you?

I was [commissioned by the LES BID] to work large scale and in public. I wanted to shake things up in my normal working experience. Because the gate was in my neighborhood I felt a responsibility toward communication that I might not otherwise have felt. I was aware of the range of people that would encounter the mural and I wanted to connect with them. The positive responses I received on the street from people of every age, ethnicity, and culture were gratifying.

What is the challenge in going from a page-size painting [such as an editorial illustration] to a wall-size mural?

I was lucky to have received help from a friend who paints wall advertisements professionally. He lent me supplies and advised me on paint and its application. The biggest challenge was the ridges of the gate. They demanded more paint than a flat surface and they prohibited a gestural, sweeping brushstroke. Every gesture had to be plotted within a grid and carefully replicated over the ridges. I ran into trouble by leaving some areas to chance and found the ridges to be unforgiving.

If I were to do a mural again I would focus more on the grid and leave the creativity for the sketch phase. The paint application would be like paint-by-numbers. But you won’t likely see me painting another roll-down gate anytime soon. The approaching cold weather week by week was also a threat.  Luckily global warming kept me from having to wear triple layers.  

Was there anything in particular about the streetscape along Orchard Street at Grand that influenced your choice of subject matter for this wall art?

I wanted the mural to interact and harmonize with its surroundings. I am fascinated by old buildings in general and how they stand silently, almost in opposition to the modern world.  Perhaps naively I ascribe to them a nobility, as though they've seen things I haven’t seen.  

I was excited, therefore, to have been assigned a gate on a landmark building. Historical accounts of Grand Street as a Lower East Side main thoroughfare and shopping district with trolley cars (and a ferry from Williamsburg) and the building having once been home to a celebrated department store before the turn of the 20th century kept me enthralled. This and the underlying existential question: How will our age appear to future generations? I wanted to communicate my enthusiasm somehow.  

The building itself is painted pink and, although pink is my least favorite color (in the whole entire world), I chose mural colors (gray, maroon, black, white) that would harmonize with the building.  

I also was keen to make the mural not compete with the activity on the street. The flat shapes are meant to contrast with the three dimensional world.  

What are some of the pitfalls about painting at a busy intersection?

There were times when I wished no one was looking over my shoulder. And motorists honking their horns is, of course, a nuisance (and a crime).  

If you could choose any building in NYC to paint on, what would it be?

Anything with a flat surface… The Chrysler Building maybe?  

Marcellus Hall website | Marcellus in DART/AI-AP here here here | on LES Lo-Down here 

Photo, top: © Marcellus Hall. Photo, left: © Laurie Shapiro.

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