By Laura Bilson
For HDMedia
Eight local muralists displayed artwork with themes of nature and community at the West Side Ripple Mural Project unveiling Thursday evening.
About 30 people turned out for the event, hosted by the West Virginia Creative Network, formerly the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts, West Virginia State University Extension Service and arts retail store Echo-Lit.
Over the past two months, artists, neighbors and local partners worked together through WVCN’s Ripple program to create the first round of eight murals that will be combined into a public art piece next door on a fence surrounding a lot adjacent to Echo-Lit, 427 Washington St. W.
The lot beside Echo-Lit will be transformed into a community event space, lined with a mural fence. The completed murals will line the front of the fence, and the next round will line the inside.
“Our dream is to create a welcoming place where folks can step off the busy streets to gather, create and feel at home — surrounded by art, nature and one another in our West Side neighborhood,” Jeanne Stevenson, owner of Echo-Lit, said in a news release.
Echo-Lit is a retail store that designs and displays original and unique art that supports local artists.
Stevenson envisioned the West Side ArtsPark as a place rooted in community and creativity, encouraging people of all ages to slow down, connect and share in the joy of public art, she said.
“The West Side Ripple Mural Project is exactly what the West Virginia Creative Network was built to support — artists and community members working side by side to transform their neighborhoods through creativity,” WVCN Executive Director Renée Margocee said in a news release.
Brianna Taft painted a mural with three golden finches on a pink and purple geometric background.
“I’ve been watching her paint it,” Andrew Gornik said about his wife’s work. “This is her first piece this size. All the pieces [in this project] are so wonderful.”
The muralists often worked side-by-side in the studio space in the upper level of Echo-Lit, becoming friends in the process. Five of the eight murals feature birds, which inspired the phrase “Put a bird on it” as an inside joke between the artists.
The Ripple program is a collaboration between WVCN and WVSU Extension Service. It is an artist-led community and economic development pilot program for artists and their communities, designed to help create a shared vision of collaboration for developing public art and supporting working artists at the local level by connecting artists with other businesses.
Read more from HDMedia, here.
