Playful, almost hallucinogenic images of hairy monsters and a skateboarding boy cover the wall on the side of the Hudson County Art Supply building on Coles Street in downtown Jersey City.
They’re part of a mural by noted artist and Jersey City resident Ron English and West Coast artists Bigfoot and Jason Maloney.
The mural was painted back in March during a nine-hour session. The collaborative effort was the brainchild of another Jersey City resident, Dylan Evans, an art curator and photographer who launched his new organization, tentatively named Mural Arts Program for Jersey City, with that mural.
Now, there is a second mural being created under this program on the wall of the old YMCA building on Monticello Avenue.
“My overall plan is to bring pop artists and fine artists from around the country and around the world, and when they are in New York, bring them over to Jersey City to do legal pieces,” Evans said. “And then Jersey City can get some recognition for art.”
But Evans is not the only one pursuing the goal of bringing colorful wall art into the community. Local artists Joan Palmer and Irene Borngraeber have formed Walls That Talk: Fostering Community through Mural Arts, and are preparing to start their first mural on the facade of the Liberty Humane Society building on Jersey City Boulevard near Liberty State Park.
“I see it as cleaning up Jersey City and beautifying it.” – Joan Palmer
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Jersey City is already graced with various murals, the most famous one several blocks long on Christopher Columbus Drive, painted in 1998. However, there are rumors it is to be painted over.
Art largesse
Evans was inspired to kick off his mural program last year when he curated a show during the Jersey City Studio Arts Tour, with the works of various artists from across the country.
“I was impressed by the way the show turned out and I didn’t want to lose that momentum,” Evans said.
Evans was also influenced by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, considered one of the nation’s largest public arts programs in the United States and now celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Evans sees the mural work as art being created for wide visibility, and also as a time-consuming process that requires meetings with the city’s Division of Cultural Affairs and other city agencies to get the proper permits.
He has to put up his own money and get small donations from others. But the labor of love is meaningful to Evans.
“It gets arts tourism here and brings something back to Jersey City ten-fold,” Evans said.
Like Evans, Palmer said the idea for her group came from Philadelphia’s mural program in her hometown. That city’s program was initiated in 1984 to combat the growing graffiti problem, and to encourage graffiti artists to create murals to celebrate their community.
Palmer said some of the principles of her mural program parallel Philadelphia’s, in that it will pair young, inexperienced artists from the community with more established ones to bring about works that will be of benefit to everyone.
“I just think it will bring a different type of ambience to the landscape of Jersey City,” Palmer said.
For more information about Dylan Evans’ Mural Arts Program, visit the website http://jerseycitypop.blogspot.com. For more on the Walls that Talk program, contact Irene Borngraeber at: irenepod@gmail.com.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.