2014
Tuesday
June
24

CALL FOR ARTISTS! Sebastopol Village Building Convergence Project

Sebastopol

Cittaslow Sebastopol is embarking on an exciting project in collaboration with the newly formed Sebastopol Village Building Convergence (VBC).  The project is to make the section of McKinley Street between the downtown Plaza and the Barlow more inviting for pedestrians and to unite downtown.

The proposal is a community project where volunteers will paint three large graphics in the street! Three locations have been identified in our project area (one actually could climb up the wall of a building!) and we are seeking artists to submit proposed designs.  We hope the three designs will relate to each other and will be connected to each other with some sort of small graphic elements like apples, snails, bubbles – or something of your creation.

Each artist can submit one design for one of the locations, or three artists could join together and submit three designs for all three locations as a collaboration.

THE DESIGNS:  Each design should be large, mural sized and for placement on the pavement.  The designs will be extrapolated to large size using a grid with your involvement and help from others. The actual painting of the design will be done by volunteers (under your guidance) during the placemaking event Sept. 12-21.  The community will be invited to join in and we also expect out-of- town visitors.  PLEASE BE CERTAIN THAT YOU WILL BE AVAILABLE DURING THIS TIME BEFORE APPLYING.

The designs should be fairly simple – with not a lot of detail - so they can be easily transposed and easily painted on rough pavement by volunteers.  We would like them to reflect something about our cultural history, natural environment, or agricultural heritage.  Examples:

- Sebastopol and surrounding area

- The Laguna

- Agriculture – especially apples since the Barlow is a former apple processing center

- Russian River

- Luther Burbank

- A Cittaslow snail incorporated – can be small

- Reflections of our cultural heritage:  Pomo, Mexican, Japanese, etc.

- Ocean

- Redwoods

We will provide all the paint, brushes, supplies and volunteers.  Your experience producing murals or large art will be very helpful but not required.

We do not expect finished final art to be submitted but the design should be as complete as possible to indicate the look, scale and colors.  Selected artists will be given time to finalize their art for final production.

Designs should be submitted digitally to  MartyR@sonic.net by the deadline of July 15 at 5:00 p.m. (Please send an email as soon as possible expressing your interest in submitting a design.)  We will choose the best candidates and submit them for a brief community survey online.  There will be a

$100 stipend for each final design chosen. 

To get a good idea of what has been done in other areas, please visit VBC’s website here:http://sebastopolvbc.weebly.com/placemaking-info.html  You will see examples of large intersection mandalas and other projects that have been created in Portland where this movement began. 

A map is (above) showing the locations of the proposed art. The pavement murals are proposed at locations where pedestrians can safely stop to admire the artwork, and where parking over the art would be minimal.  The three areas are as follows: 

A.  Along the east side of the crosswalk traversing McKinley at Petaluma Blvd. and Laguna Pkwy. Mural can go from red painted curb on one side of the street to red painted curb on the other.

B.  At the intersection of Brown and McKinley moving out into McKinley Street as far as desired.

C.  At the western side of the crosswalk traversing McKinley, just west of Taylor Maid Coffee and along the red curb on the southern side of the street. This painting may also climb up the wall

of the adjacent cinder block building with the art flowing up from the street to the wall – such as birds flying up, trees, clouds, or something encouraging movement.

A series of visual elements such as small painted apples, snails, birds, foot-prints and/or bubbles would draw the eyes and feet from one canvas to the next.  Each artist is invited to suggest how the paintings would connect from one to the next. 

Once artists have expressed an interest in the project and questions have arisen, we can hold a meeting on McKinley Street to view the locations and answer questions.

More information will be available soon at: www.cittaslowsebastopol.org/villagebuildingconvergence.htmlQuestions:   MartyR@sonic.net

 

(NOTE:  Implementation of this project is contingent upon receiving approval and permits from the City.)

SOURCE: http://www.sonomacountygazette.com/cms/pages/sonoma-county-news-article-2820.html