Shipley's Tavern Mural
Hanover
grad close to completing
eye-catching tourist attraction
This
is the fourth public mural
that Black has created
By
Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer
(September 2009) – Mural artist Tiffany Black
knows the meaning of hard work. Over the last two years she has relied
upon fundraising, donations and the aid of friends to procure funding
for the West Street Mural Project.
The project consists of 18 historic scenes of Madison surrounding a
main river scene, painted on the side of Shipley’s Tavern, 322
West St., in Madison, Ind. While Shipley’s owner Cris Sauer is
the biggest financial contributor, Black said she has relied heavily
on sponsors.
|
West
Street Mural Sponsors • Lydia
Middleton Elementary School (John Roberts Painting & Sherwin
Williams) |
“Even when it became clear that I would have to do
some major fundraising in order for this to happen, I barely thought
of abandoning the project. It’s just too good of an opportunity
for me as an emerging artist,” said Black, 24, a recent Hanover
College graduate.
A few individuals and businesses invested in the project right away,
Black said. These included the Iron Gate Inn, Hanover College and Madison
Chemical.
Black provided a list of possible scenes to potential sponsors, but
a few came up with their own ideas. Morgan & Nay Funeral Home chose
an historic scene of a horse-drawn funeral procession, something Black
would never have thought to paint.
The mural is surrounded by a frame which Black likes to think resembles
vines. When finished the mural will contain eighteen round openings
among the vines, depicting historic scenes. “It’s like looking
through a thick forest and finding these illuminated scenes standing
there with all their individual history and character.”
A boat in the center of the mural represents the Revonah (Hanover spelled
backward), a real steamer that traveled the Ohio River in the 1900s.
The boat’s owner was Capt. Selby Turner, who had a business on
the river between East Street and St. Michael’s Avenue. Turner’s
grandson, Dick Goodman, sponsored the center spot.
Sauer said he is happy with the progress of the mural. “She’s
amazing,” he said of Black’s talent. When Sauer pondered the
idea of the mural, he consulted Robyne Hart, a former business professor
at Hanover College who is now director of a college business program
in Chicago. Black was a student of Hart’s and Hart told Sauer,
“I know just the person” to paint the mural, said Sauer.
Once Sauer proposed the idea to Black, “I immediately knew that
I wanted to do it,” she said. Black has painted 15 murals since
high school, “but never one outside a building, and never one three
stories tall!” She hopes to complete the mural by October and the
finished size will be three stories high by 80 feet long.
She completed a three-month internship with muralist David Schuster
in Louisville, Ky. She aided him in painting a mural at Trinity High
School, helped with painting classes he taught in his art studio, learned
how to run a small business and market herself as an artist.
 |
|
Photos
by Don Ward Tiffany
Black’s mural on the |
|
|
This is actually Black’s fourth public mural. She
painted one for the Hanover College mailroom titled, “The Giving
Tree;” another mural in the Lide White Memorial Boys & Girls
Club movie room in Madison that contains more than 100 cartoon characters;
and a mosaic project on the riverfront in Madison.
“In my opinion, a mural should reflect something that’s present
in its environment and make a comment on it, or provide it with a story,
a background, or show it in a new light,” said Black, who is from
Danville, Ind., a small town west of Indianapolis.
She enjoys the community involvement a mural attracts, as individuals
often pass by and become interested in the project. “Murals are
so big and visible that they really affect the space people live in,
and energize, and I find that really exciting.”
But there was more than just painting to consider before beginning this
project. Black had to research scaffolding, insurance, drafting contracts,
professional exterior paint, masonry sealers and primers, and talk to
contractors about how to patch the crumbling brick wall she would be
painting her mural upon.
Black considers herself a muralist by profession, even though she is
often compelled to sculpt, collage, sew, draw, make woodcut prints,
take photos and write songs on her mother’s old guitar. “I’m
constantly creating things,” she said.
A mural of any size requires planning to get the composition, color
scheme, subject matter, balance and contrast correct. Most of the planning
is technical, centered on the structure, she said. “It’s all
a process of taking things in and letting it flow back out.”
Clate Winters, 8, won a raffle to be the sponsor of one spot on the
mural. He chose a scene from the Madison Regatta Unlimited hydroplane
race.
One large sponsorship position on the mural is still available for $1,000.
• More information can be found at www.weststreetmural.blogspot.com, or by contacting Tiffany Black at (317) 796-8793.