The Great Mural Wars of Northern Arizona
Murals, murals, murals. Do you have any idea how many outdoor murals there are in Flagstaff? No? Neither do I. But all of the sudden, I'm completely engrossed with the task of answering that question.
See, a friend of mine - Andrew Johnson-Schmit - recently challenged me. Andrew lives in Prescott, Arizona, where I lived for 11 years before coming to Flagstaff. Together, Andrew and I produced a weekly talk-radio program called "The Prescott Arts Beat" that covered all of the arts and cultural activities happening in the Prescott Area. We had a lot of fun with that show, for about three years, until I ruined everything and moved to Flag.Prescott's a pretty neat town. Solid arts scene, a lot of talented artists, good cultural programming. Different than Flagstaff in many many ways. They have assets we don't have, we have assets they don't have. Since I have moved, Andrew is always arguing with me, saying Prescott is a better arts town than Flag. Personally I think Flagstaff is leaps and bounds above Prescott, at least in terms of arts and culture (and probably other things, too, but I'll stay on task).
Anyway, there's a group in Prescott called the Mural Mice that advocates for more murals in town. They are pretty vocal. And Prescott needs them, too, because by Andrew's count, the town only has 11 murals.
To my surprise, Andrew is proud of this number. He has challenged me, saying that Prescott has more murals than Flagstaff. To our Flag readers: you know just how wrong he is, don't you? Our staff counted fifteen murals in just five minutes, off the tops of our heads. After awhile, we remembered more and guessed that Flagstaff probably has about fifty. This sounds like a project I need to have an intern work on. Suddenly, because of a silly fake battle with a friend (he calls it "The Great Mural Wars of Northern Arizona"), I want to have photographed and cataloged every mural in town. Seems like something we should be able to look up and reference whenever we need to, right?
I'm curious... what are your favorite murals in town? I think my favorite is at the top of most folks' lists: the Joe Sorren mural on Heritage Square on the Old Town Shops building.
Cheers - JT
ps. Quick update: as I was about to post this, Andrew sent me an email basically conceding that we had more murals than Prescott, but saying "quality" is more important than "quantity." I love it when I have him on the ropes! I'd put the quality of our murals up against any town in Arizona.
posted by JT @ 7:03 AM
5 Comments:
One of my favorites is the mural you have pictured, on the side of the Absolute Bikes building. This mural captures the feeling of freedom that only riding a bike can give you- it's bliss!
Another of my faves is the wood-fired Clay Stomp at NAU. I was not there for the actual making but did help install it in it's permanent home on three walls outside of the Ceramics building on South Campus of NAU. The actual Clay Stomp was at a ClayAZ Art Conference here in Flagstaff several years ago- I think 1996. On the floor of the dome sat several tons of wet clay, and hundreds and hundreds of feet from all over the world, joyful frolicked and danced upon it! And then it was wood-fired in the Tozan Noborigama at NAU. I love it!
I'd have to go with the enormous cow on the side of the Furniture Barn. That thing is ridiculously awesome!!!
tmural that best descibes flagstaff on the 4th st and rte 66 intersection.the mtns flag and grand falls with lake mary.adorned with a border of native american interest.holly stahl did that mural nearly 10 years ago. the arizona north bldg. owners also paid the artist remarkable...
Be fair. Flagstaff has more murals, but I recently visited the city and found a lack of depth to them. Personally, i feel that public murals, and I mean outside murals, have the potential to shed light on community identity. They have the ability to sculpt and orient perception of the environment and people in the town, Something that galleries do not feel obliged to exercise. I think the best murals are relative art in ordinary peoples life's. Flagstaff also has a percent for art policy which enables them to throw money at walls to fill space. i believe that public art should be the voice of the people. Flagstaff would benefit from the same formula used by the Mural Mice in Prescott. They create their murals with the whole community and make it mandatory for their murals to reflect the towns culture and heritage. Imagine if the Anasazi created pictoglyphs and pottery portraying random graphics from other places. We would know even less about who they were. On the up side. Flagstaff is very fortunate to have Joe Soren murals. The cow ads a sense of humor to the traffic situation, and the bike mural is cool as hell. Public Art honors these two towns. Let the paint fly!
My comments about Prescott v. Flagstaff were mostly tongue-in-cheek, and I don't criticize Prescott and their art world. That said, I'd disagree with you about the depth of Flag's murals. I appreciate that murals here can be created without having to represent everyone. Some murals represent some in our community, and others represent other people in our community. Art can orient perception for sure, but it is also meant to make us think. Sometimes that means it won't be to everyone's taste, and it needs to push the envelope. How do you do that through mandatory formula?
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