Do you think the mural behind Artist Craig Martin will inspire children? I don’t know how the kids will act towards the mural. Kids are known to be unpredictable. I however like it.
West Lafayette Public Library mural aims to inspire by Justin L. Mack, Journal And Courier
In about a month’s time, Craig Martin took the wall of the West Lafayette Public Library Amphitheater from a slab of drab concrete to an eye-catching sea of inspiration.
“The idea of this mural and really, the singular point I want to make is, there is no subject matter here. There are no things,” Martin explained. “There are no creatures or animals or people because there’s no story yet.
“My hope was to sort of set the stage and make a scene for you so that when anybody walks up to it, there is a way to look it at and walk into it yourself.”
Martin’s untitled piece was dedicated Sunday afternoon before dozens of community members. With the wind blowing through the amphitheater and sun highlighting the mural, Martin explained his inspiration as children in attendance blew bubbles into the air to christen the mural.
The piece, located in the rear of the library along Northwestern Avenue, is an outdoor landscape that begins with a dark, ominous forest on the far right. As your eye travels left, a sun kissed field is featured near the center.
On the far left, underneath a banister that surrounds a portion of the amphitheater, are mushrooms, tall grass and other vegetation.
“This particular piece of work transitions from an area that is kind of dark and spooky to an area that’s bright and open. And when we talk about a library and what’s inside of a library, isn’t it sort of an extended metaphor for exactly that?” said West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis. “Often times when we come in and get a book, it opens up our minds and takes us on wonderful adventures and to great worlds.”
Throughout the mural, Martin painted the names of 40 children’s authors such as Judy Blume, E.B. White and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
In honor of those authors, storyteller Sheri Johnson of the Tippecanoe Storytellers Guild performed the poem “Little Orphan Annie” by James Whitcomb Riley, gave the audience a little bit of background information on Dr. Seuss and had everyone at the dedication raise their hands and take the Reader’s Oath.
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