Downtown Beverly Mural Update

June 21, 2013

What’s new? A mural to be painted as part of Arts Fest

By Will Broaddus, The Salem News Staff writer

Beverly Main Streets is just as creative as the artists they host at Arts Fest and always manages to come up with something new.

This year, they will double down on new additions, with a slate of fresh faces performing great music and a mural project on Pond Street that will have everyone craning their necks to see.

The mural is the idea of artist Philip Coleman of Angelmex ll Studios, which is located at the Porter Mills Studios.

“He was approached by Jan and Don Preston,” owners of the gift shop Casa de Moda, said Heather Wolsey of Beverly Main Streets. “Because they have this vision. They’re very interested in public art.”

The mural is going to be painted on one of Casa de Moda’s walls, Wolsey said, on the Pond Street side.

It will be painted “trompe l’oeil” style, a super-realistic technique for portraying objects.

“It means ‘to fool the eye,’ or something like that,” Wolsey said.

It will depict a streetscape, and will be named “Calle Casa,” which is Spanish for “Casa Street,” to honor Casa de Moda.

The mural is sponsored by Beverly Main Streets and several other local businesses and will enlist the aid of Montserrat College of Art students as interns (Amy Titus, Shoshana Browne-Gaiero and Eric Wright).

The mural has been started, but the work done during Arts Fest Beverly should provide a dramatic display of artistic skill in action.

Coleman, who has done other murals around the country will do two more at the back of Casa de Moda in the future, Wolsey said.

There are several other murals downtown, including one painted by Montserrat students on the side of Cabot Street Cinema Theatre, parts of which depict the costumes that were used by Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Company, which ceased performing at the theater last year.

“Main Streets supports public arts like this,” Wolsey said. “We want to have public art downtown for everybody to enjoy.”

…visit salemnews.com to read the full article.

Also, on boston.com 


www.montserrat.edu