I recently completed the largest scale mural I have created to date, here in Athens GA. I answered some questions about the project from Jessica Smith at Flagpole, and wanted to share the entire interview to give folks a bit of insight into the work and its meaning. All questions are from Jessica Smith.
1 — What motivated you to approach AthFest Educates about replacing Birdsong with Hope?
The decision to create a new mural on this site came from a confluence of a few ideas, initially being concern with fading of the red pigments in the mural panels. I was intending to take the panels down and repaint them with a more UV resistant paint to keep them vivid and bright. Around the same time I was considering that now might be a good time with everything being slow downtown and not disturbing the businesses on site, I created a print and poem called Hope-Full-Nest. The response to that piece was humbling and unexpected. I thought there was potential in a beacon of hope for the town and that is when I began to think about the possibility of a new mural on the site. This thought coalesced with another idea to auction the pieces to benefit AthFest Educates to help with funding for a cornerstone organization of our community as they too navigate these trying times. It is not often ideas like this bud and then flower into such prosperity in ways beyond my initial conception. As the idea moved along, I realized the Birdsong mural could be distributed throughout our community and enrich those connections in deeper ways. The publicity from the work could also help draw people downtown to businesses that have been so generous in their support for my art and for arts in general, not to mention just integral parts of the cultural landscape of our town. It must be said that Epiphany Athens and The Rook and Pawn have been active and generous supporters of the entirety of this project, and Creature Comforts and Ted's Best owners and their staffs were supportive throughout the duration.
2 — Can you tell us about the design and symbology behind Hope?
I have spent a large amount of my time throughout the past year reflecting on and contemplating Hope. In this mural the symbol of Hope is found in the Barn Swallow. Swallows are seen as symbols of Hope and Rebirth for a number of reasons, but particularly significant here is that they represented returning to Home for sailors. This is both because Barn Swallows always return to the same location to mate and nest annually, and because when a sailor that has been at sea sights a swallow it means that they are nearing shore and thus Home. This is a prime reason why sailors got swallows tattooed on themselves so often and why they have become frequent images in tattoo iconography. Using this narrative of the sailor at sea looking out to find a swallow to know that Home is forthcoming has a lesson in Hope (that is True and deserves that capital "H".) In this narrative -as in my mural- the swallow is not Hope, it is a symbol of Hope. What is True Hope here, is a sailor that cannot see the shore, climbing up the mast and looking out on the horizon day-after-day. This is what Hope must become for us to persevere - we must learn to Hope in Hope itself, and if we can do this and pull our eyes out across the sea and up to the sky we will be greeted with a piece of Heaven with feathers and wings. This is because True Hope is not simply a yearning for outcomes we desire, it is actually a detachment from outcomes that refines our desires, and only can be True Hope if it seeks the Unseen. The swallow is the Universe sending us a reminder that we have not been forgotten and our Hope is enough in-and-of-Itself. In this mural this symbolism is amplified by the swallows carrying branches that they are creating a nest of sorts in the sky around one small Hope-Full swallow. There are 24 swallows in flight, and the 25th swallow is in the nest. This represents this piece honoring the 25th anniversary of AthFest and the complexity of how we navigate this one year that seems so difficult at times but is also so full of Hope, specifically because it is so difficult.
3 — What was your process or overall experience like for creating this mural?
I found through this project that I cannot paint Hope. The mural is a symbol, just like the swallow, it is not Hope itself. I can, though, embody Hope. And I can create something through the Gifts I have been Given that is worthwhile and invites the Hope that resides in the Hearts of the people here in this place I love so much. I had moments creating this mural that I was so overwhelmed with Gratitude and a sense of purpose that I simply could not help but cry, or smile, or laugh, or dance. I worked so many hours in a small time, working from dawn to dusk for over three weeks, and I am so grateful for that opportunity. This mural reminded me of my place here, in Athens - on a planet floating through an apparently vast and endless Universe. I cannot believe that I get these opportunities to create things like this still - I feel like a child watching my teacher putting paint on a styrofoam paint and telling me I can paint anything - ANYTHING! This fills me with Hope, it reminds me that I have something to contribute here. It reminds me that one day I will die, and I will die having lived a life that will never fully acknowledge the endless Gifts that I have been Given - and I will have given my breath and my sweat and my Love trying with things like this to say "Thank You!" I cannot fully express this experience, and I am happy to keep trying and giving back as much as I can even though I will never succeed. It is so wonderful to have failure in this act, to continue to be broken time and time again and to be self-conscious and unsure only to reveal more and more that not just despite my shortcomings, but in fact because of them, I have something worth sharing. If this community keeps being so generous and so supportive to my art and my family, I will keep doing everything I can do to give them reminders of Hope and of the Unseen glimpses of Heaven that always might come on that Horizon.
As for actually painting the thing, I really just made a mess on the wall and somehow managed to not get in trouble this time for drawing on the walls! Also some people helped me and kept me out of trouble, mostly Mara Bastow who assisted on both this and the Birdsong mural and was wonderful company and assistance!
4 — Reflecting on the theme of hope, do you have any hopes for the local arts community as it continues navigating through (and one day recovers from) the pandemic?
I have so many Hopes for this, Art is how we navigate these times and come out on the other side stronger and resolute to become who we are capable of being. I have seen through these months and through my personal experience that this community and the leadership here recognizes this outcome and are doing everything they can to support the Arts and Artists. I know this because this is how this mural happened, the support of the auction of the Birdsong mural floored me- I still cannot comprehend it. I did not, and still do not, know exactly what I was doing in the course of this project, but a few weeks out past it I am already beginning to see that perhaps I caught a forthcoming wave before it had visibly formed to most people (including myself). I cannot see the Unseen, and that is exactly why I have Hope here - because I believe the potential we are all sharing right now, here in Athens, is greater than any of us can know or imagine. I hope we can all hold that in our Hearts, and the mural can act as a tiny sliver of a reminder to keep climbing up the mast together and looking on the horizon. We have so much potential here, there are so many amazing people and this Land is rich in ways we will never fully comprehend. I am not leaving here because of this, I am raising my children here because of this - because I believe in our potential together and I believe that I will always be supported and so will my children. It is a worthwhile endeavor to be Hopeful.
5 — Please feel free to let me know if there are any other series or projects you’re currently working on or thinking about that you’d like readers to know of!
Well I always have a dozen things going on it seems. First, we are getting towards the finishing stages of a large-scale sculpture at the Cooperative Extension Service Center on Cleveland Road with my friends and artist Peter James McCarron and Dave Harrison, it is going to be truly epic! Second, I am delivering mounted woodblocks to Indie South's shop on Hawthorne to have pieces available for the Holiday season there. Third, I am doing a video art lesson with The Lyndon House Arts Center that should be fun for everyone. Fourth, I am having fun with my children -building bike trails and climbing walls with my son and reading books and acting silly with my daughter. Fifth, I am trying to give my wife kisses whenever possible and tell her how much I Love her. Sixth, I am calling my Mom and Dad and telling them the same. The last three being the biggest priorities.
