Artist Journal 4-20-07

I have just completed my second trip to Conway--during the week of April 12th--in which I presented my preliminary mural design. With help from UCA faculty, invitations went out and a meeting was held on Thursday, April 12th at 7pm at the Circuit Court Building in downtown Conway.

In this meeting, I presented my design, walking the group through each part, explaining the historical references and symbolism throughout. I was very quickly amazed at the thoughtful and positive criticism that I received from the group. Everyone present took a turn offering suggestions, comments and compliments. Once the comments had subsided, I closed the meeting by thanking everyone for their time and letting them know that I would consider their suggestions and offer a final design by the end of May.

The next day, Dr. Gayle Seymour (of UCA) and I presented the design to the Conway Public Art Committee at City Hall—the very site of the mural. This committee was gathered by Mayor Tab Townsell as part of the new Conway Public Art Resolution that has made a clear-cut and transparent approval process of planning, creating and installing public art in the city of Conway. Just as I was pleasantly surprised by the candor of the community meeting the night before, this meeting also surpassed my expectations.

Having created and run a community mural program in Pittsburgh over the past four years, I have had many opportunities to work with that city government and navigate through its approval processes. I have to say that someone in Conway is doing something right. The public art committee made it very clear that they were to represent the citizens of Conway, and wanted to go over the suggestions made at the previous meeting and discuss my plans to accommodate those ideas. The committee members were very kind, bright and organized. We discussed at length (as three of the committee members had attended the previous meeting) all of the suggestions and comments that were brought up at the community meeting. I spoke about my plans to make some of those changes, and reasons why some of the suggestions would not work from a design and content perspective.

We concluded the meeting by agreeing that I would deliver a final design via email to the community group and the public art committee by the end of May. Upon satisfactory receipt of the design, the committee would then present the design to city council along with their endorsement. We would then begin painting in late August.

I wanted to share this story with you so that everyone interested can understand the process that your city officials have made, and to offer my glowing endorsement of it. Thank you all once again for your continued support. I will deliver the final design by the end of May, 2007, and look forward to begin painting by the end of August. I am very excited about this project, and believe that it will be a lasting landmark and source of pride for Conway for many years to come.


Regarding the design changes, following are notes from the Preliminary Design Presentation:

Cloud shapes (meaning in the shapes?)
Question of the tree
Turn the cbc building to see the towers better
Quilt bothers people (looks like a snake chocking her)
Have it flying out behind (or above to take up space in the sky) with her hands holding it
Picture of the child is the focus and takes away from the rest of it
Size needs to be scaled down
Glasses? (tone them down, change the size or shape, seem too goggle-like)
Agreement with the size of the girl drawing you into the mural
Facial expression shows excitement/anticipation of the future
UCA symbol on the shirt is on the wrong side for a monogram
Boy playing with the engine seems like he’s coming out of her leg (change where the quilt is to bring a definite break between the two figures)
Show UCA as a purple stuffed bear being taught by the girl
UCA shown three times and all the other schools only being shown one (is it more important?)
Make the hill go up higher on the left to fill up more of the sky (enlarge the land)
Sky takes up more than half Or move the land up on the right
Is the little girl going to stay as ghostly/undetailed?
(some agree that she should stay out of focus because she seems off in the distance) Turn the baton into a ruler
Make sure to include something (text panel) to explain the meaning behind the mural
If the hand didn’t hold a quilt in the right hand there could be something
Hold a ribbon stick, kite, airplane something that could contain the quilt pattern in it
Bring the land up on the right side and bring the pixilation down into the land
Is happy/uplifting
Putting something in the right hand would take focus away from everything else because it would take up room
Use a clothespin or something to hold the quilt together at her neck

In response to these suggestions, I would just say at this point that all are under consideration. Gene Hatfield made many astute observations at the community meeting—specifically, the comment he made about the snake-like and “choking” nature of the quilt-cape was very helpful, and therefore, I will most definitely re-visit that. The pink glasses…well…I am still considering those comments.

I am also going to finish out some of the children characters. I will add “real” portraits to all of the children’s faces, with the aid of photos taken of Boys and Girls Club of Conway members. The Native American child will also undergo some changes in dress that will make him/her more historically accurate with some helpful research provided by Professor Morales of UCA.

I had a wonderful time in my last visit, and look forward to my stay in Conway this fall. Please watch for a final design by the end of May.

-Morton

Artist Journal 4-2-07

Artist’s Journal
Morton Brown
4.3.07

The design is near complete. Since the last iteration, I have re-worked the flying kid portrait, and added some features to the landscape. I have completed the quilt pattern and have connected it visually to the landscape. In the lower right side, I have removed the historical figures of Col. Robinson, Florence Mattison and James John Doyne and placed them on the left side. Now, they are watching the children at play and complete the chronological progression from the past to the future across the picture plane.

On the ground where they once sat, is now an imagined aerial view of the land around Conway, complete with a cotton field, flooded rice paddy, and freshly tilled field. At the suggestion of a Conway community member, I also ran the railroad off into the right hand side of the picture to form a “crossroads” near the children that leads off into the rural area.

I have refined the play area, as well. I have shifted the color of the ground to a more earthy tone to balance the more pinkish portrait of the flying kid, and added shadows and details to the toys and figures to pull them into focus. The conductor has denim stripes on his hat and clothing, the ballerina clearly defined, and the last of the buildings have been placed and tightened up. The buildings are, from left to right: The Little Green Building (Conway’s first public school) St. Joseph’s (will be replaced by its school building), Hendrix College (Old Main building), The Pine Street School (Conway’s African American public school), Central Baptist College, a barnyard, The main Normal School building (UCA’s origin), and the train depot(s) sitting on either side of the tracks as they once did near the mural site itself.

In this final week before the presentation on April 12th, I will finish the train model in the hand of the conductor, the school bus in the hand of the ballerina, and make some final touches where needed.


Thanks again for your continued participation and support, and I’ll see you next week.

-Morton

Artist Journal 3-26-07

Artist’s Journal
Morton Brown
3.26.07

Details, details, details…from here on out, I suspect that I will be much involved in the details of this painting. I have continued to play around with placements of figures and their portraits, but now is the time to bring the details into focus.

I received a very nice picture of Florence Mattison-one of Conway’s most memorable public school educators, and have decided to make her my third historical figure. This truly seems to work, now that I have Asa Robinson (founder of Conway), JJ Doyne (founder of UCA) and Mattison (instrumental figure of the Pine Street School, an African American public school from Conway’s past).

As you can see, I have made several adjustments to these figures. To date, I have kept them over to the lower right side of the painting-suggesting that they are sitting on a park bench and watching the children playing. I tried several poses, but was very limited by the very few photographs that I have of these characters. I finally decided that they look too awkward in that corner, and moved them over to the left side of the painting. I have decided to keep them in period clothing, so that they will remain points of conversation after the mural is complete, and not merely dismissed as “extras” in the cast. Besides, this painting is still very magical, even surrealistic at times, and could allow some ghostly figures standing about. The most difficult task remaining with these figures is to capture a likeness when the actual portrait is about an inch tall (and to imagine what JJ Doyne looks like smiling…he looks too creepy in this painting without at least a Mona Lisa smile…).

I have taken most of the week this time to work on the pixilation. I want the figure to pop out from the background, but I also wanted to connect the flying kid to the pixilation in some direct way. I chose to pixilated her in certain places, forming a pixel-edge that still allows her to step out of the background, but be integrated with it. I jumped back on the computer to study pixilation once again, and I noticed that while they don’t vary in size (in relation to one another) I could play within the painting and make some smaller pixels on the figure that may help pop her out. Would a mixture of small and large pixels work in a painting, though? It did-it is almost like there are two projections running over top one another. The smaller pixels on the edge of the flying kid make her stand above the larger pixels in the sky, and it doesn’t seem to confuse the painting.

I am looking for something to place in the lower right side. It is almost okay with it being sort of open-ended over there, but it seems a little bare for now. I did remove the airplane-flying kid to make room for the three figures…maybe he will resurface on the lower right side.

I will be getting some pictures from children of Conway Boys and Girls Club, in which they will be posed to resemble the kids in the painting. I hope to replace some of these characters with those models, keeping the costumes intact, of course. I am also going to place the Pine Street School and some sort of reference to the cotton industry for next week.

Thanks again for your continued participation and support, and I’ll talk to you again next week.

-Morton

Artist Journal 3-19-07

Artist’s Journal

Morton Brown

3.19.07

I chose to develop the flying kid more fully this week. As some of you may have noticed on the website’s blog, I had added the sunglasses on this figure in photoshop a couple of weeks ago as a touch of interest, to complete her costume, and as a means of an allusion to looking towards the future.

This week I decided to render it in paint on the design. I liked it very much, but it needed more in order to speak to the future. So, I brought back the pixilation in the clouds and sky around the figure’s head. I was very reticent to bring a “special effect” into this painting, because this design was always more of a traditional allegorical effort instead of the mixture of the flat, poster/design oriented endeavor of the first design. This is something I have attempted before-mixing the traditional figure-in-the –landscape with flat design-in my studio work, but never to this degree of full environment with flat devices.

I also developed the Arkansas Traveler quilt pattern, and found that I like the play between the pattern of the quilt, the pattern on her shirt, and the pixilation in the sky. It is almost too much, but balances nicely while creating some interesting energy and rhythm. To the left of the flying kid, I have placed Col. Asa Robinson, founder of Conway standing behind the park bench where James John Doyne, founder of UCA sits. I have made a sketch-note that one of the prominent female Conway public school teachers will be sitting between Robinson and Doyne (as soon as I figure out who this should be, and I ask your opinion on this…).

I have also decided on some of the characters of the playing kids. The main figure placing the railroad tracks is dressed up in a costume that resembles a business suit from the 1940’s, but was actually taken from a photograph of a Conway railroad dispatcher from around 1905. I also added the figure of a ballerina to symbolize-not just dance-but the proliferation of culture in general: the arts that are brought to the community largely by the efforts of the universities. If you look very closely, the ballerina is playing with a farm tractor, a horse and a couple of sheep, which speaks to the agricultural history of Conway.

Also, note the buildings that have been added. Directly in front of the ballerina is Central Baptist College, as its main building looks today (with its back to the viewer). Closer to the railroad tracks-the two smaller buildings on either side of the tracks are the train depots that resided at the mural site location, as seen from around 1905. Further in the back and atop the knoll is the more developed main building of Hendrix college from the 1890’s. I have also added a Ward bus that can be seen placed between CBC and Hendrix.

For next week, I will be developing these characters, buildings and adding references to the cotton industry. I would appreciate any help or advice on the public school teacher that will sit on the park bench, and any other comments on the direction of the final design. Also-I feel that it is interesting to have some of the founders located around the park bench, but am of two minds as to how to represent them. In their current state, they are represented in period clothing-almost like ghosts-but also sort of echoing the “playing dress up” theme of the rest of the characters. I like this, but it also seems a little weird. I could diminish the period clothing, and re-dress them in more modern clothing or just sort of make the clothing nondescript as to any sort of time period (for instance, Doyne could simply wear a white button-down Oxford-type shirt without a tie and suit).

Please let me know your thoughts, and I am looking forward to bringing the design towards completion!

PS: As of this Friday, March 23^rd, I will no longer be available at the morton@sproutfund.org email address.

Please make any future emails out to bromorton@gmail.com.

Sincerely.

Morton

Reference Images 3-13-07 (2)

Here are some more reference images for your perusal.

From top to bottom:

1. Railroad station, c. 1952
   
2. Conway Depot Yard, c. 1928
   
3. Conway Depot, exterior, c. 1905
   
4. Conway Depot, interior, c. 1905
   
5. Cotton Market, Front Street, 1909
6. Colonel Asa Robinson, founder of Conway

Reference Images 3-13-07

Thanks to Sue Tebo, Slide Archivist at UCA, I have a wealth of reference images for potential use in the mural.

I have included these and my own photos for your perusal.

Enjoy!

Artist Journal 3-13-07

I am still searching for symbols to denote the future, technology, progression, etc...Just for fun, I played around in photoshop last night and added some glasses to the flying kid.

All of the children represent the future, but the flying kid is supposed to be heading off into a new day...the glasses seem to complete the costume, and adds a bit of humor with some realism of a kid at play...The glasses may not stay, but I thought I would share my investigation.

Your thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.

-Morton