This summer I was commissioned to create a mural/sign by the the Anchorage Community Land Trust (ACLT) in Mt View, Anchorage. The piece is a free standing mural and a sign for the ACLT’s new community garden, which opened this summer. The garden is an initiative that supports local immigrant and refugee farmers, small business development and fresh locally grown produce. Grow North Farm (GNF) produce is sold almost everyday of the week during the growing season and is a block from my studio.
The mural design highlights the diversity of Mt. View with a collection of designs inspired by traditional textile and tile patterns. I met GNF farmers and we chatted about their countries of origin and I showed them some of my ideas for the mural. The farmers are originally from countries such as Bhutan, the Congo, Somalia, Nepal and Nigeria. We looked at patterns and they provided feedback on the mural design.
In the mural you will see patterns inspired by Central and South American cultures such as that of the Aztec and the Amazonian Shipibo. I included designs inspired by Kuba cloth from the Congo, Dhaka designs from Bhutan and Nepal, Mali Bogolan mud cloth, Yoruba Asoke cloth from Nigeria, and a variation of a Saipo Tapa flower pattern from Samoa. You will also see Paisley, name from a town in Scotland, origins from Persia. I included tile patterns from Spain and Portugal, my favorite, the Ogee, originally from Morocco and Alutiiq Alaska Native designs.
I’ve always been fascinated with patterns and once I started research for this project, I was quickly consumed and obsessed with the abundance, variety and history of textile design be it traditional, contemporary or indigenous. Such beauty and wealth of culture and history! I was happily overwhelmed and humbled by textile design and designers. I can only hope to represent a few of these traditional designs with my limited background in this area. Some of the designs are from stencils of commercially available patterns that I modified and some are my own designs inspired by my research.
The original design for the mural/sign was for a 8 x 12 foot double sided piece with multiple traditional patterns and a large cutout of a beet silhouette. The leafy part of the beet was to extend out from the top of the sign.
However, it became clear that zoning codes and permits are more complex than previously determined, especially when the project involves a sign vs artwork. In the end, the leafy appendages were eliminated and multiple smaller vegetable silhouettes were painted directly on the mural surface. The vegetable shapes are from photographs I took of produce from the Grow North Farm.
The design process of a large public piece requires the most time and work, more so than the actual painting. The process includes the initial research, meeting with community members, the collection of resource imagery, ordering supplies, choosing colors and creating a small scale demo painting. Patterns require a base color and a pattern color, so I needed to choose compatible colors in terms of saturation, temperature and value, as well as coordinate colors with adjacent patterns. Putting these pieces together and balancing color was a challenging yet enjoyable puzzle. Please see the slide show below for more images of the mural process.
Many thanks to the good folks at the ACLT for their support of my work. Special thanks to AmeriCorps intern, Nick Bachman and a lead coordinator for the Grown North Farm. I look forward to Spring 2020 when the mural is to be installed and to more great produce from the Grown North Farm.
