Tuesday, March 7, 2017

#sol17 Day 7: murals and sites of memory

8:30 pm and I'm still not sure what to slice about. Not that I don't have ideas, too many maybe, and picking up more with every post I read.

Margaret's SOL #7 Slice of a Mural at Reflections on the Teche not only took me back to New Iberia, Louisiana, where I lived for about five years in the 70s but gave me the idea of using murals to connect places along the way , in this case the three places before Yuma.

Mountainair NM train mural, Across the New Mexico Outback by David McLane:
Wray Simmon's Mountainair NM train mural (2006), photo by David McLane

I moved here from Mountainair NM and there from Davis CA, both sites of abundant public art and murals: respectively, MMAC Community Art Program (preceded by Art Alley 1999) and Davis' Transmedia Artwalk.


“Cycle Back in Time”, Murals and Sculptures | Davis CA Transmedia Art Walk:
“Cycle Back in Time”, Murals and Sculptures | Davis CA, Transmedia Art Walk
Lafayette LA seemed less so but, as it turns out, has become one in the years since I left. Unlike the other two, the Lafayette mural was not only painted long after I left but over a re-purposed site of early memories. 

Red brick archways framing live oak trees soon will greet visitors to Lafayette City Hall. Instead of pulling into the parking lot of Lafayette's city hall (formerly the original, pre-mall Sears department store on St Mary's) and facing a plain brick wall, residents soon will see red brick archways framing live oak trees:

Red brick archways framing live oak trees soon will greet visitors to Lafayette City Hall. Instead of pulling into the parking lot of Lafayette's city hall (formerly the original, pre-mall Sears department store on University) and facing a plain brick wall, residents soon will see red brick archways framing live oak trees 
Ultimately, this post is as a much about change as it is about sites of memory that murals can preserve or overwrite.

Yes, there are murals here in Yuma too but not as many and not outdoor ones. I don't have photos yet but expect to. The 1980 mural by local artist Margie Chance that graces the Chamber of Commerce Facebook page is a collage of iconic local images.


 




This blog post is for the 2017 Slice of Life challenge, hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Slicers write all through March, a post a day, every day of the month. We read each others' posts and engage in extended written conversations commenting on them

4 comments:

  1. Wow, Vanessa, what an interesting topic, a clever slice of your life in various places. I'm thinking of all the places I've lived now and thinking back to public art and murals. I can't think of one from every place I've lived, though I'm not such a visual person. You must have an eye for art!

    Denise

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    1. My first blog was one for/about the Mountainair NM arts community, although it probably with my mother. I was an only child, she was a formally trained artist, and we lived in a series of small towns --isolated, out of the way. Years later, I realized there were a lot of art lectures.

      Before that, teaching literature, I learned how much students liked visuals -- photos, related art, etc. and what a difference they made "seeing" the work. Before the internet I would load a backpack with art books. The coming of the internet was -- literally -- a load off of me.

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  2. Don't give up on slicing. I love your theme: "Sites of Memory." The images are stunning.

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    1. Thanks Glenda -- not likely I'll give up -- I started blogging in 2006. I would like to complete a March challenge. It's a good way to recharge my blogging batteries too.

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