Round four of mural painting at Funk N Waffles in the 727 South Crouse alleyway next to Chuck's, and itself occupying some of the good old Hungry Charley's basement space. Owner/operator and funky-delic musician Adam Gold invited fellow Syracuse area artist Nathaniel West to give his front side hall the treatment with our paint kits. Here's where we are on it after a week.
A new favorite to watch for -- Big Mean Sound Machine from Ithica, NY. Could of sworn I was listening to Zappa at times. Before their set was out I decided that I want to see them on a bill with Wagner 3000. Playing here, at a reception for an art show.
Syracuse area artist Nathaniel West had already been working for almost an hour by the time I got there Thursday evening ... See, the house painters had been using our laundry outspill sink to clean their brushes in. Exterior latex all weather non-water soluble paint. Now mixed with about fifteen years of laundry machine lint.
IT DOESN'T DISSOLVE, GUYS.
The state of my mural as I finally got swinging. Goal for tonight was to solidify forms, bring out edges in the near landscape features, and start working dry media over patches where the painting was already at a polished enough state.
The Big Mean Sound Machine. Astounding jazz/fusion, look them up.
Martin Butts, our Handler amongst the staff, and Joe, who had some interesting feedback on the mural that sparked an idea on how to better treat the textured surface. Brilliant! right on mang.
I got a sticker!! ;D
The far right (west) end, which hadn't been getting attention due to some clutter + poor lighting. Here I'm making it start to happen anyway, original idea being a sort of Area 51 zone with a rocket launch pad like out on the salt flats where they launch the drones from. The idea came from the working title for the piece, Wonderland, derived again from the pre-King Crimson pop group Giles, Giles & Fripp's catalogue. And also nickname for Area 51 amongst UFO/paranormal interest buffs.
The headliner music act for the evening, splendid grou called Andrew & Noah Band, sort of an Americana revivalist thing with indie elements. Think The Decemberists only without the twelve minute accordion solos and four less people.
Hanging up top with Martin the Consultant for a few ... Nate, we gotta talk more about the wardrobe, bro. There's ladies out there & even if you're spoken for we need to look frosty.
...
See?
Once again Andrew & Noah Band, a startlingly good listen, will get more info on them. As would be expected for a place run by a musician, currently on tour and allegedly jamming or having jammed with former Talking Heads sit-in keyboard player Bernie Worrell.
He was in some other band too, what was it ...
Nate West
Nate West
Steve Nyland
Syracuse based artists Nate West (left) and Steve Nyland (right) with their respective mural paintings underway at Funk N Waffles, 727 South Crouse Ave. on the Syracuse University hill.
Area 51, now a writhing pit of Freudian ooze thanks to The Big Mean Sound Machine's salsa set. Oustanding work, gentlemen!! this was totally not part of the motif before, unsure if it will stay but it's the first new element in the formula of the composition since ... August? And screw the drone launching pad, I want a sewer.
Nathaniel West
Stephen Nyland
The most of the mural I'd been able to fit into the lens so far. Since the hallway is such a tight squeeze it's impossible to make it all frame up nicely in one take. I've been experimenting with video walkbys too and will try to post one later.
Nate West, and my favorite feature of the mural. I call it a coaxial plug face.
The beginnings of windmills and an observatory.
The yellow tinting is due to the lights right overhead which even the staff cannot locate a switch for and is believed to be controlled by the Thai joint next door. I did make an introduction with one of their crew last weekend and will see what kind of access we can get to it, even just for an hour to shoot some pictures with tungston bulbs four our clip lights.
Harsh. The line for CVS ... what the heck??
Back at home blogging this & working #8 (top) and the bowed #6, which I would actually like to show in this curved state somehow. In the scheme of how I had worked on them the FnWs mural is #7; #2 is the Greens Fest mural, #3 the 2nd elongated version and #5 a more standard size done on foam core -- Those three are currently on display at the APAC Building at 131 Bleecker St. in downtown Utica. #1 is The Drone Zone and that ain't going anywhere anytime soon (check one of the blog entries just before the mural project began for a look at the different versions of this motif underway at that time).
#4 is another more standard sized piece (the first with heavy emphasis on color) and that plus #6 will hopefully go with me to Hamilton NY on Sunday. And you should too! Starting at 4pm visiting curator/lecturer Richard Castellano is giving a talk on collecting art at our Broad Street Gallery, Catharine Westlake's show at the Hamilton Center for the Arts will be open for viewing, and Tony Thompson will be there. He'll think of a way to display that bow.
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