Murals brighten area walls

(Editor’s note: This story originally ran April 4. It’s one article new readers might have missed. A few new murals have sprung up since.)

Art is always a matter of perspective.

While some people look at a building and see bricks, many artists see a blank canvas and endless possibilities.

In Augusta, there’s no shortage of creative minds with the latter perspective.

“I think murals show the voice of the artist,” said Jason Craig, a graphic designer and mural artist who won the Greater Augusta Arts Council’s inaugural Kath Girdler Engler Award for Public Art in 2018.

Craig has painted multiple murals throughout downtown Augusta. Some have been temporary while others remain. Examples of his work include the “Get Up, Augusta” mural and the “Respect” mural on a wall separating the James Brown Arena and the Bell Auditorium.

Augusta’s art scene is what brought Craig to the area two decades ago. He’d lived in the Midwest until he visited his father who’d moved to Augusta. He fell in love with what was going on downtown and packed his bags almost immediately.

“The real voice of the city is in the art of the city,” he said.

One mural he helped bring to life is the “Keep Downtown Augusta Funky” mural, which was painted in November 2017 on a boarded-up portion of the former Woolworth’s building.

Leonard “Porkchop” Zimmerman designed the mural that paid homage to five downtown businesses in the fonts used in the word “funky.” According to Zimmerman, each letter represented the style of font used in the signs for Fox Shoe Repair, Luigi’s, Nacho Mama’s, and Kress and Crosby’s.

Zimmerman has painted multiple murals in the city, completing four since the end of 2020.

He finished up a set of three in honor of James Brown on Ellis Street on April 2. A Porter Fleming Foundation grant paid for the supplies for the murals.

Zimmerman said he wanted to paint a positive message on the buildings while honoring the godfather. He’s already painted a couple of positive messages including the “Augusta, I Love You” mural.

The first mural in the collection was “Please, Please, Please,” which Zimmerman said was the walls asking for artwork.

The phrase came from the song of the same name; “Yes You Can” came from “The Payback,” and the final mural which he started during women’s history month was “Without a Woman or a Girl” which came from Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

He’s also painted murals related to his Happy campaign on Tire City Potters on 10^th Street and a robot swinging from the moon next to Field Botanicals on 12^th Street.

His first mural was painted a decade ago on the water works wall on Wrightsboro Road.

A lot has changed since that first one, he said. He used a grid system to paint that mural, but now he projects the image onto the wall to paint over it.

Helping Zimmerman with the most recent mural was Jay Jacobs, who has collaborated with Zimmerman before, but has created several pieces of public work on his own.

He honored opera great Jessye Norman with a mural on the side of the Jessye Norman School of the Arts. He’s also painted a mural across from Zimmerman’s on 12^th Street. Jacobs eradicated some graffiti by painting a little boy with a spyglass pointed at Zimmerman’s robot swinging from the moon. The child is wearing a pirate hat with a robot on it.

While many of the larger outdoor murals are painted by men, April King is a prolific female artistic. She’s painted several outdoor murals from Aiken to Waynesboro and multiple locations in between. She recently finished a mural in Waynesboro, She’s also created pieces outside Sno-Cap Drive In in North Augusta, on the Ellis Street side of Southern Salad and Edgar’s Above Broad. She painted the exterior of the Savannah River Brewing Co. as well as a colorful mural inside. One of her most popular ones is the “I Love You” mural in Aiken. She’s done many interior murals as have most of the other mural artists.

King also does wedding and pet portraits.

“I can’t do big all the time, and I can’t do small all the time,” she said. “I love that I can do tiny portraits and murals. It’s a challenge for me. It’s really exciting.”

And people seem to like the murals, according to data from the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Through #LoveAugusta and #ComeSeeAugusta, the CVB tracks posts, and several of Augusta’s murals make the top posts on Instagram, according to Eleanor Prater, the organizations marketing and communications manager.

Among the murals frequently posted to social media are Cole Phail’s James Brown mural on James Brown Boulevard, the Happy mural; and the Westobou triptych which includes a mural by Jacobs on 11^th Street, she said.

“Anything associated with James Brown is popular,” she said, adding that Zimmerman’s painted mural series featuring lyrics from the godfather of soul’s songs have drawn recent attention.

King said she’s always interested in seeing what other people are painting, and if there’s a new mural, she’s going to check it out. Her trip will also include a lunch and then shopping nearby.

“Businesses have started to understand how marketable public art is,” she said. “Wherever art is people will gather. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

And there are plenty of blank walls still in the area, not just downtown.

New art projects are on the way including the second phase of the Golden Blocks project in the Laney-Walker area. Xavier Jones and poet W. Travis “Brotha Tray” Wright will create a mural called “Ember of Hope.” A poetry manuscript will accompany the mural. And Hasani Sahlehe will create a work based on archived photographs, according to a news release from the Greater Augusta Arts Council.

Craig said he also has a couple of projects that will be painted in the next few months.

Jacobs said he’d loved to see even more murals pop up over the city.

“Downtown has a definite style. South Augusta might have a different style. Who knows?” he said.

Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com