Reading By Moonlight

Facing the entrance to the Warren County Memorial Library, Reading by Moonlight is a community enhancing (20 ft (W) x 18 ft (H) mural painted on the façade of the public face of Legacyworks Studio shop building located at 120 Front St., Warrenton, NC.  Employing scaffolding, the bright colorful painting began with preparing and priming the wall surface using mural quality gesso and developing and painting the imaginary landscape.  The two intergenerational pairs of youth and older adults lean against the tree of life reading from books under the light of the full moon.  Professional non-fading mural acrylics (Nova) were used and a sealing varnish was allied as an anti-graffiti protection coating.  Please read the accompanying poem to learn about other symbolism.

The main book-reading theme of the mural connects directly to the library across the street.  The artist believes that reading is critical and especially the reading of physical books.  They allow for the mind to question, to understand and permit each person to travel and to soar.  Here, between the pages of a book the world opens up, possibilities abound, options and arguments are reveled, and totalitarianism can be abated.

Reading by Moonlight depicts past times when slaves were forbidden to read for they might outshine their owners or books were burned to stifle individualism by surfs during the middle ages. This mural is also a cautionary tale in this time of manipulating visual images.   Portrayed on television or in social media the book itself seems to be in jeopardy.

As murals have become an accepted artform and following my use of a variety of materials and methods to create environmental backdrops (such as stone or bamboo), the main goal of this project was to extend the flatness of the mural out into the nearby landscape.  To this end, the painted steps are extended physically out into the landscape using block and brick.  Reading by Moonlight is thus an example of combining 2D (mural) with 3D (sculpture) artforms to create one artwork.

Enhancing this idea, the future completion of this aesthetically engineered environmental sculpture will include a roof-collecting rainwater harvesting system with surrounding ferro-cement sculpture, Seed Oasis, and a water pump circulating ground level landscape that promotes the preservation and use of rainwater in an artistic setting.  Measuring 27 ft (W) x 3 ft (D) x 16 ft (H), the environmental sculpture form will consist of a metal framework that supports the gutter collection and movement of water from roofline to ground through a first-flush system and into the 250 gallon plastic vessel located within the seed pod form.  Stacked blocks will be employed to create a level surface between building along the roadway in front of the building facade, where a mini pool, supplied by the collected rainwater, will support a narrow planting bed.  With the addition of non-obtrusive studio signage, the whole environmental sculpture installation (mural and 3D form) will promote the idea of including three-dimensional aspects into future mural projects.