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City Farmer's Market Gets Artist's Touch
Jul 9, 2009
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Thursday, July 9, 2009 By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer Public art installed Wednesday at the Uptown Farmer's Market celebrates the diversity of the community while it focuses on agriculture. Basically, the artwork is "a portrait of an event in a community," said Tina Sell, director of exhibitions at Piedmont Arts Association. And while the market offers diverse products and appeals to a diverse audience, it centers around a common theme of agriculture, she added. The four panels of the mural and 13 or so different pieces of art created by Upward Bound students enrolled in Martinsville-Henry County After 3 reflect that diversity but also focus on the common theme, she said. After two panels were joined together to create a large middle section, the three remaining parts of mural were installed on an outside wall of attorney Reid Young's office on Church Street facing into the market. The students' works were installed on outside posts near the corners of Church, Moss and Main streets, according to Lee Probst, executive director for MURA. When viewed as a whole, the art will have a 3-D effect, Probst said. Betty LaDuke of Seattle, Wash., created the mural, Probst said. While visiting Martinsville and Henry County, Sell said, LaDuke "went out into the fields with our farmers, visited the farmers market area and farms in adjacent neighborhoods." She also met with historical group representatives and others during a community meeting at the New College Institute, Sell said. LaDuke made sketches and drawings while here "and got inspired," Sell said. Tropical-inspired hues of blues, oranges, greens, yellows and reds in the mural create a vibrant market scene on the two middle panels. One of the two remaining panels features pepper pickers harvesting a crop, while a goat farmer is portrayed on another. Geometric shapes pull the viewer's eyes inward and up, following the path of textured sky and patterned corn planted on hills, Sell said. Individuals portrayed "are all based on real people but meant to be generic," she said. Although she is based in Seattle, LaDuke's studio is in Oregon, and the mural panels were shipped from there to Martinsville in May, Sell said. Then, the panels were weather-treated and installed on a green backsplash, and Arovik Signs installed them Wednesday. While creating adjacent art pieces, youngsters studied LaDuke's technique and basically "copied her style" when making panels of carrots, tomatoes, sunflowers and other crops, Probst said. The public art will be dedicated during a ceremony Saturday, Sell said, and she, along with Lindsey Bryant, market manager, hopes that event and the mural attract a number of people. Located "at the mouth of many different neighborhoods," Sell said of the Farmer's Market, "everybody comes together" at the market, "no matter where they're from, to support our common heritage." The mural project has been under way for about two years, Sell said. The installation was the culmination of work for several agencies and partners involved, including The Harvest Foundation and Piedmont Arts, as well as in-kind and/or other contributions from the city of Martinsville, the Chamber of Commerce Community Pride campaign, W.W. Sale Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Studio 107 and others. The mural will remain up for between 12 and 18 months or until a decision is made on whether the art "fits and is relevant to the space," Sell said. |
