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A print of the soon to be completed Mural in a Day is on display Saturday in front of the project on South H Street in Lompoc. Each artist was given a picture of the section they were working on, as illustrated by the bird's-eye view, below, of one of the artists. //Ian Vorster/Staff
For nine hours on Saturday - from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - 17 volunteer artists worked hard to make this years' Mural in a Day vision into a 48-feet-by-12-feet painting.
“Monarch Magic,” by Colleen Goodwin Chronister of Salem, Ore., went up piece by piece, section by section, on the side of the Blacksmith Steakhouse restaurant on South H Street.
Chronister, who directed the 2004 Mural in a Day, drew the mural, mixed the colors, and finally directed the artists as spectators wandered by.
Project Chairperson Ann Thompson said people came and went in waves to observe the spectacle of a mural being painted in a single day as part of an annual Old Town Art Fest.
Thompson said the weather, cloudy as it was, was especially fitting for the project.
“It's phenomenal because it's unusually cloudy,” Thompson said, “Usually the paint dries fast because of the sun, but today its perfect.”
She said that some of the artists in the project have never done anything like this before, but that that is part of the fun of the challenge. She attributed the desires and spirit of the volunteers to the mural being completed in one day, with only break in the work for lunch.
Thompson has been chairperson of the Mural in a Day event about five years.
“The person in charge had to step down,” she said, “I decided it was time to become more involved.”
The first step in the annual project, she said, is finding a master artist, meaning the artist whose work will be recreated for the mural. Thompson said renderings were entered nationwide, ranging from states as west as Alaska and as east as New York, before Chronister's art was chosen.
Almost all of the volunteers this year were Lompoc natives, though Thompson she said in the past she has had participants from as far as Russia.
Following the removing of the scaffolding and a dedication with ribbon cutting, volunteers finally are able to relax with a dinner and celebratory party.
“It's really cool,” Thompson said, “It's a lot of work. ... There's no better feeling afterward with the accomplishment and the camaraderie.”
She said that the willingness of the volunteers to help each other, as well as the guidance of Chronister, have been crucial to making the event a success once again.
Ryan McMaster can be reached at 737-1057 or
rmcmaster@santamariatimes.com.
Oct. 1, 2006
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