Still underway at the time of publication, this mural was commissioned by Community Arts of Elmira as part of its Elmira Infinite Canvas public art program as a project celebrating Elmira’s creative economy. It features two famous dancers from the area, as well as references to the arts, culture, and history of the city. I’m looking to tell the story of what makes Elmira inspirational; not only the people who made an impact here and elsewhere, but also what impacted them.

This mural in downtown Elmira is part of the Community Arts of Elmira’s Elmira Infinite Canvas program. It is one of my most recent works and one of my favorites. The inspiration for choosing Osprey for the subject was to visually show the wildlife in and around Elmira, NY. I have also been able to create artwork for a few traffic signal boxes in the city of Elmira.

Over the summer, I was a part of the Front Street Walls revamp. There are several walls along Front St in Fishtown that usually get updated every year, but haven’t for a few years due to the pandemic. Streets Dept and MAP organized a few artists to paint new murals and I was lucky to be one of the chosen artists. This was one of the first murals I’ve painted where I was in total control of the subject matter, which was super exciting.

Lately, I keep returning to the imagery of big cats in antique scuba helmets. To me, the diving helmet represents human influence, a heavy burdensome thing. The rise of industry and technology alters our native landscapes and is threatening to wipe out wildlife. Human industry and innovation has consequences – the extinction of species, habitat loss, and climate change are some of them. I love that this piece has a rather bleak meaning to me, but the colorful background doesn’t make it feel so heavy.

“Read, Write, Listen” is an abstract mural in downtown Elmira that is part of the Community Arts of Elmira Elmira Infinite Canvas initiative. The space is adjacent to a public park and not far from the Clemens Center Theater. The art piece includes a little library filled with free writing and journalling supplies. It is my hope that open mic type events for writers in the community will be hosted on site, using the mural as a backdrop. This project was funded by a NYSCA grant with the help of the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes. 

Recently I was able to paint in Binghamton, NY on the M&T Bank building (68 Exchange St.) with Golden Mural paint and Kobra spray paint. The mural I created is called “Spread Love”. This mural is about how the good deeds we do in the world (watering the rose) are not only beneficial to the initial receiver, but also have a butterfly effect that can create more beauty for others that wasn’t originally intended (the outline of the other roses).

About the Mural

George F. Johnson had a shoe factory which made every pair of boots for the soldiers in World War One. They were also the largest manufacturer through the Vietnam War. 

He had a factory and was a businessman, but he was also kind of a socialist who took care of his employees and basically built the entire town. Employees had access to affordable housing, Johnson would build the houses and sell them to employees at cost. Employees also had free medical care and all sorts of other benefits. You can see why everyone loved him. And in my eyes, this is just a really rare story in capitalism. Could you imagine if all of the billionaires of today actually shared their wealth?! Imagine how much better everyone’s lives would be.

I have also had this experience of stories finding me, from the same time period as the photos. I’ve been using these types of photos as inspiration since I was 22 years old. Painting George F. Johnson was a no brainer. 

As far as the design goes I repeated the “Warhol” squares which I have used in several murals, but also took the shape in the center from the Susquehanna River, and filled it with some of my signature abstraction I typically use in studio work. Throughout some of the mural I have stenciled the phrase “Home Of The Square Deal” – one of George F. Johnson’s slogans (that actually influenced Roosevelt’s “New Deal”). The other phrase stenciled throughout the design is “Men Of Vision” – the owners of the building had done some research on the history of the building, which used to house an optometrist. The owners had collected several ads which used this phrase. Not only do I like the phrase I also think it fits well with George F. Johnson. 

Watch a time lapse of the mural being created here. 

My piece is on a historic building – The Warwick Hotel. The building is currently used for low income housing. It’s an old building with a lot of rich history. I’m painting on a blank patch of the building which is a repair from the damage of a large fire which destroyed a wing in the ’60s. The building was a newspaper office, radio station, mayor’s office, post office, bank, barber shop and even served as a secret offloading place during prohibition. I put together a piece that considered a lot of these elements.

The focus of the mural is a reporter who listens to “the city” and jots down notes. He is framed by an architectural detail of Tudor Rose roundels. The Tudor Rose is taken directly from the ceiling design of the hotel. The mural also includes elements from the hotel’s history – an antique mailbox (post office’s past), an antique safe (bank), a ship (the prohibition drop-off, as well as the nautical history of Newport News), and an antique barber’s chair (from the newspaper clippings in the lobby). 

The model for the reporter is symbolic, chosen to reflect the community that sits with the mural daily. As I have been painting him, the residents (there is a group of about 10-15 folks that sit out every day and watch) have taken to calling him Mr. Warwick. On his hat is the symbolic “press ticket”. On his lapel is a swan brooch, which is a nod to the Warwick name (and family crest). The family crest is found everywhere in the architecture of the building, specifically within the wooden decorative trim in the lobby, as well as in the historical documentation in the lobby display. On the pencil he is using, I have included the old call letters for the radio station that was housed in the building, which was another form of relaying information and truth to the residents of the city.

I was thinking about the Warwick’s family motto, which would have been included in print versions of the crest in the lobby – “Vic ea Nostra Voco” (I seldom call these things mine own) – which is really about the importance of community, of listening to the community and responding. This has ties to the journalistic tradition as well as the role of the artist – which is, at its heart, a responsibility to the public to relay the truth. Essentially this piece is encouraging listening to the city while acknowledging its past.

This project is dear to us because it really took the efforts of a caring group to bring this mural to life, as they had to fight for a sign ordinance revision in order to get large murals in their downtown. It was also in a spot with heavy foot traffic, and Wilmington is full of warm smiles and gentle hearts. We were so happy to bring a source of candid joy to so many, and hope it inspires the city to bring many more pieces of public art to their downtown. Samantha and I like to joke that we have the sort of job where our boss (the public) tells us “Hey, good job!” every two minutes or so. High morale!