The mural that adorns the side of Building 5 will remain unfinished until the weather improves (photo by Turner Maxwell)
Originally scheduled for completion before fall term began, the mural on Building 5 will remain unfinished until warmer weather arrives, LCC art instructor Tom Madison said.
“We’re happy with the progress, but it got to where the weather was so unpredictable. With a project of this size, it takes as long as it takes. I’m not worried about time. I want it to be the best it could possibly be. I was disappointed that the weather came in and we didn’t quite get it done yet. It’s not about time, it’s about quality,” said Madison, who designed the mural. “Everything we did was for longevity.”
Painting the large-scale mural required renting a lift each day of the project, an expense that added up quickly. Madison said that because the lift was only utilized part of the time, he decided to wait to rent it again until the weather will allow for longer hours.
Madison said they will begin the finishing touches in late spring, and that nothing has changed from the original plans for the mural. Madison chose to start the left and right sides of the mural first, because there wasn’t any rendering to do and it was something the students could start after the preparation phase.
The finishing touches include the landscape in the center of mural, which is close enough to ground level that Madison and volunteers can reach it with a ladder. The cultural patterns on the left-hand side of the building are going to become the landscape.
“We’re really just looking at a little strip along the bottom center. The left and right side are done. We want it to be well-done, so it’s going to take some time,” Madison said.
Madison said they have all the supplies needed for completion of the mural. The finishing touches plan to take approximately two weeks of hard work.
“We have everything we need. The only issue is the lift. If we rent a lift again, we could have to get (Facilities Management and Planning) to pony up a little more money, which I don’t think will be a problem. We could also use scaffolding,” Madison said.
First-year student Rolly Orr, who has been painting murals for 20 years, said the preparation took a lot longer than expected.
“The wall was a lot more damaged than you could see from a distance,” said Orr.
“The unusual aspect of it for me was when I was working with students. As far as mural paintings go, very few had any experience in it. Therefore, they needed a little more guidance than just putting up a mural,” Orr said. “Once we get back to work on it, I imagine that it will be done in a rather short period of time.”
Original volunteers working on the mural told Madison to call them when he is ready to start finishing the mural. However, Madison says he is not opposed to recruiting other volunteers because he wants it to be a community project.
“It was a lot bigger than everyone expected. I was actually glad that it stretched out longer than it did because the class was only four weeks. I got a lot of practice, experience and opportunity to put some serious effort into the actual painting,” said Dylan Bragg, who was a student in Madison’s mural class last summer. “One of the things about the class was that there was a lot of preparation before we did the mural and any painting of color.”
