Thursday, August 7, 2008 9:33 PM CDT
Mural design focuses on Mattoon's 'civility'
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — Batman’s nemesis, the Joker, would hate the mural proposed Thursday by artist David Gordon, whose design for the debut Mattoon Mural Arts project is the opposite of anarchy.
And even though the word “civility” itself never officially made the list of concepts that an ad hoc committee asked to be included in the first of three or four professionally painted murals, Gordon said most of these ideas are under the umbrella of this simple theme woven into the design he unveiled at a community meeting Thursday.
“What makes this town work? People getting along,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, the mural arts committee — which was open to all community members — gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to Gordon’s rough draft; in fact, the committee asked for no significant revisions, and entrusted the artist to tweak his design as necessary before he begins painting in early September on the west wall of D to Z Sports in Midtown Mattoon.
Gordon said he was inspired by the city’s relatively stable population.
“I thought that was relatively unusual,” he said. “Why do people come back? The word that kept coming back to me was ‘civil.’”
Gordon also mentioned his fascination with the cooperation required in a bustling hub of railroad activity, as has been Mattoon’s heritage.
“In order to not have accidents, there had to be some rules of the road,” he said. “There’s our theme ... We have a town where people understand what it takes to get along.”
Elements featured in the design include:
n The old Essex House hotel/railroad depot, with trains converging from both sides;
n A young Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas conversing as they walk side-by-side;
n An azure sky filled with large clouds;
n Fields of corn and prairie grasses;
n Representations of people from early in the city’s history through present day.
Gordon said he photographed several children at play during his visit to Mattoon in mid-June. In his design, one of these youths is shown holding hands with a child from a turn-of-the-century photo.
Per the instructions of the committee, Gordon avoided the abstract. However, this isn’t to say there was no room for symbolism in his painting.
For example, Gordon said he placed rabbits throughout the design to demonstrate that not everything can be orderly. He also pointed out a hawk perched on a telephone pole, intently watching one of the rabbits.
The children, meanwhile, are juxtaposed with the adults they may one day become, indicating that “first one thing happens, and then another thing happens,” Gordon said.
Funded by the Lumpkin Family Foundation, the Mattoon Mural Arts Project is intended to yield at least three professionally painted murals. The goal is to gather as much input and collaboration from the community as possible, with hopes the project will one day become self-sufficient and high quality murals will begin appearing all over Mattoon.
The committee of residents previously landed on a theme of “Positive movement from the past through the present to the future” for the first mural. The group chose Gordon from a list of candidates provided by the Philadelphia program, and asked Gordon to incorporate concepts such as work ethic, patriotism and education while emphasizing images of people.
Gordon’s design met with rave reviews Thursday.
“It’s stunning,” said area resident and accomplished violinist Tom LeVeck, adding that he appreciated Gordon’s “subtle symbolism.”
Angelia Burgett, Mattoon tourism coordinator, told Gordon: “I love that you really listened to all the ideas people were saying. It all goes together so perfectly.
“It’s very personal to Mattoon.”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
CLICK TO ENLARGE
|
lefty wrote on Aug 7, 2008 9:56 PM: