Nice guy, intense and funny – young – he didn’t want me to take a
picture of his face and only wanted his artist alias – Lunar New Year – on the
blog. I’m not sure if it is an alias or the name of his current collection of
paintings that includes the mural currently in progress on First Street (near
Coles), or maybe those sort of distinctions are some of the constructs he seems
intent on disintegrating. “There’s too much ego in art already, don’t you
think?”
Hard to argue. The more you know about the artist, the more
context you bring to the work and that preconception inevitably impacts the
communication between the work and the viewer.
On the side of this building so far, in black and shades of
gray and some muted gold are two bearded men, in profile, stare into the
distance. The hands of the men are gesticulating; at least their fingers are
crossed. For good luck? Gang signs? What are they looking at? Their gaze
seems rapt, attentive, serene.
You want to know but the answers may lay more in you than in the art.
You want to know but the answers may lay more in you than in the art.
The mural is still not complete, although LNY expects it
should be within a week or so, weather permitting. There were showers but the
skies soon cleared and the work was barely interrupted. I first thought these
pictures may be stencils of some kind. They’re very detailed and exact, they
could be reproductions. Also, these are tall pictures, about two stories high.
Rarely are murals so vastly vertical. To be so precise on this size space, well
it is astounding and that is why my first guess was stencil. But they are not
stencils, they’re hand painted. When I was there he was using a can of spray
paint.
What will do with the space around and between the two
profiles? Will you be using other colors? Do you have this painting planned out?
“Planned out? What fun would that be?”
For now, the artist, the art and the audience are all
involved in the same process: surprise and discovery.
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