My apologies for having been gone for the last few days, although my excuse is completely legitimate! I was painting a mural at the Sandy Creek Fire Department in upstate New York!
Ten years ago for the first year anniversary of September 11th, I was a eager young college Junior and I painted their two main doors with a screaming eagle and an american flag (I don’t have a photograph, sadly, this was before digital photography! Perhaps someone reading this has one and can email it to me?!). Well, last fall those doors had to be replaced as doors tend to and I was again given the honor to be asked again to decorate the front of the doors.
Many of you might have never heard of Sandy Creek. It’s a small town with one stop-light. It is an agricultural town, tiny but proud, and it houses the Oswego County Fair every summer, about a mile from my parents house. Its a town where everyone knows everyone, and even though I don’t live there any more it is always nice to go back! My brother, Tom, is the President of the department and my nephew, Zach just joined. I know very well many of the men and women who work hard not just to provide help when it is needed, but the same individuals who help fill pools, run Demolition Derbies during the Fair, that fill swimming pools in the summer, or help run benefits for the community members when needed. In a small town many of these great people do more then just put out fires, they’re valuable members of the community in their own right. And I am proud that I could do this mural FOR THEM and I am excited to show that while our town is small the pride in our community is immeasurable.
Before I post the progress pictures I want to say a special thanks to fellow SUNY Oswego professor, Sarah Haig for her volunteered assistance on the mural. She painted most of the stuff that required a very steady hand, something I didn’t have much of after about 8 straight hours of painting. Also a thank you to all of you who came to keep me company as I painted for 24 total hours (17 straight yesterday) over a 34 hour period–you know who you are. And thanks to everyone at the fire hall for letting me show off a little on their doors! So Tommy, Lance, Jim, Micci, Dale, and everyone else–you’re awesome!
So, here’s the progression of a mural!
- This was when I finally for both line drawings on the doors. Took about an hour and a half. I did it at night so that I could project the images. While I did all the sketches, projecting the images made sure everything was perfect.
- I started this door on the first night. I got one layer of blue on before it was too damn to keep going.
- These are my nephews James and Jayden. They were awesome about letting me know when I missed spots!
- James was sitting (very safely) on a chair beneath the flatbed truck that was lent very kindly for the mural! James took his role as helper quite seriously!
- After getting home at just before 2am, I was back at the mural by 5:45am the next morning.
- Mama Terri brought me a very large Iced Tea to keep me going!
- I don’t generally drink soda. However, the sugar and caffeine were needed. Multiple times.
- My pal, Sarah, worked voluntarily for MANY hours in the hot sun, out of the kindness of her heart. I know she thinks it wasn’t anything, but she was a HUGE HELP and I’m so appreciative. Also, she’s about the ONLY person I would let touch the mural!
- Sarah here is hard at work. I am pretty sure she will see dancing line green letters in her head for weeks.
- While it looks like a brown stain, the left hand door will soon look like a fireman! Gotta build those layers of color!
- Adding in some value. Still in the ‘under-painting’ stage!
- More value. The little girl is my friends’ Torrey and Amy’s daughter, Cordelia! She enjoyed watching the mural come together!
- Adding color took me well into the evening. This was at my stopping point around 10:45pm, 17 hours after I started. A special shout out to my Mom who brought us dinner and kept us fueled because in the artistic haze Sarah and I didn’t each much more then a banana and a candy bar…
- The right hand mural after stopping for the night. Sarah kicked butt on this, and let me with just a little clean up and adding of values to do in the morning!
- FINALLY DONE! I finished at about 10:30am this morning (put in about 3.5 hours of finishing touches and chatting with visitors!). After a clear coat sealer the doors were ready for official use!
HELLIONS TEAM 
Wowza, that’s incredible! And it’s fun to watch artwork like this coming together!