May update: 2 flower murals complete!
Colour and brightness starting to change the environment
“We’re really made up with that, you know,” people have told me about the first mural on Pansy Street. “It’s lovely, really brightens everything up.” I wish I could transmit the Liverpool accent through this blog. (“Made up” in this sense means “be delighted” in northern English dialect.)
With Pansy Street done and looking cheerful and smart, I embarked two streets down on an ambitious task for any artist - painting honeysuckle flowers!
Woodbine - honeysuckle
Woodbine Street is not named after cigarettes as some may suppose! It’s an old name for the common honeysuckle, and includes other plants that bind and twist to wood… a wonderful tangle of interweaving stems, elegant petals, stamens and pistils. Here is my design and poetry idea.
How do we make this a physical reality on the side of a building? A lot of hard work and preparation, planning and elbow grease!
I had to mark out an archway on this one, since the rendering was newer and there was no indentation like there was on Pansy Street. I got the archway shape by measuring the horizontal chimney stack, using a plumb line and drawing round the edge of a canvas template I had cut out previously.
I decided upon a split colour background with a leafy transition line. Honeysuckle likes its roots in the shade and flowers in the sun. A lot of people have told me how much they like the yellow; it’s such a happy and hopeful colour.
Getting to know people in the Flower Streets
Working such a physical job outdoors from 8am-5pm most days means that I have met, smiled at and talked to dozens of people who live in the area, or who pass through on their way to work…people who walk their dogs at the same time and place every day, builders on jobs. I’ve had conversations with old people, children, young parents, people in their 50s, people whose first language is not English, people who have driven round from the main road curious to see the mural - I just love the way art acts as a spark for human interaction.
I’m continuing friendships that began in the Pansy Street mural creation, sharing life, sharing difficulties, sharing jokes. Despite hardship and health issues, my new friends have helped me enormously by offering to store my fold-out table and equipment so my car doesn’t overflow with painting equipment (obviously I can’t leave stuff on the street overnight). Many people who live here have had really hard lives. Someone’s dad passed away on Pansy Street last week. Out of respect for their privacy I can’t go into more detail, names etc. But all these encounters are enriching and help me build up an accurate picture of human life here, in all its messiness and complexity - a bit like “sweet disorder”.
Poetic words and how they relate to this community
John Clare was an English poet who lived from 1793-1864. He was the son of a farm labourer and had a very detailed knowledge of, and strong connection to, nature and the land. When he was 16, Parliament passed an Act for the Enclosure of his home village of Helpston and neighbouring parishes. For centuries the village had lain among huge fields, woods, heath, and wild areas. Now barriers of all sorts enclosed the open common lands for private use, setting rectangular bounds on a world that once centred in Helpston and ranged out freely in the circle of a child's exploration. This had a heart-breakingly profound effect on him psychologically, and in later life he spent time in lunatic asylums. (He also wrote the well-known poem “I Am”.)
Earlier this year Pauline Rowe chose this part of “The Shepherd’s Calendar” as part of our consideration of woodbine.
…Round field, hedge, now flowers in full glory twine Large bindweed bells, wild hop and streak’d woodbine That lift athirst their slender throated flowers Agape for dew falls and for honey showers These round each bush in sweet disorder run And spread their wild hues to the sultry sun
Flowers - metaphors for people and seasons of life
The way the vines intertwine and go their separate ways is a bit like how we meet various people over the course of our lives; our paths crossing for a while and then moving on, yet still connected.
The organic interweaving is similar to Irish and Scottish Celtic art; the recognition of the flow of life through all things, and faith, eternity, and love.
Sweet disorder
Honeysuckle is not the plant for anyone who likes everything to be neat and in straight rows! I think having some form of order is important, but I also love the spontaneous and unplanned aspects of life.
In order for anything creative and good to happen, some sort of mess/chaos/craziness needs to happen too… If we want a nice meal, food needs to come out of the fridge, utensils and surfaces get messy, washing up needs to happen - and if we don’t want the mess, we go hungry! This project is similar - if we want good things to happen, we need to be ok with uncertainty and open to the unexpected.
On the other side of the wall I painted a poem that I wrote, after a few attempts to combine the thoughts that had come out of Pauline’s sessions and my own musing about how honeysuckle is like human life and relationships.
Things that have been easier than expected…
Using the cherry picker. I thought I would be totally mal co-ordinated with it, but I’ve actually got quite nifty!
Getting up at 6.15am every morning so I can get ahead of the traffic and make the most of the day. I was never a morning person but now I am!
Having cups of tea brought to me by friendly residents. Especially needed after working 3 hours in the shade and wind: my hands get cold!
Things that have been difficult
The surface of these walls are very porous and bumpy. It’s not just a sweep of the brush and that’s it. Every brushstroke, whether big or small, has to be gone over again and again in lots of jabbing movements to get in all the “holes”. If this effort is not made, it doesn’t look good. But I need to be careful of repetitive strain injury.
It’s been extremely demanding physically, carrying heavy things every day, getting tools and equipment out of my car and packing it all away safely at the end of each day. Fortunately I am a fairly robust person, and let’s just say it’s a good thing I don’t care about manicures!
Having to secure the area with fencing and clips and screws and all sorts is fiddly and laborious. The murals need protecting from potential vandalism overnight during the process of their creation, so this work needs to be done. But it’s tough, and it’s tough doing a hard day’s work not knowing if it will definitely still be there as I left it when I arrive the next morning. Such are the challenges of art in the public space.
1 Woodbine Street, before and after. Media and interviews
I’ve had two interviews during the past couple of weeks. The first was with a couple of film students from Liverpool Hope, who were making a documentary on murals in Liverpool. It was really nice.
The second was with the Liverpool Echo. At the time of writing, the article of this interview and photo shoot has not come out yet, but I will let you know about it.
You can also follow my daily photo updates on Instagram madeleine_faith_art
And on Facebook: Madeleine Pires - Artist
Closing Thoughts
Painting this mural has really has been a labour of love. Love for nature and the way it comforts and uplifts us, love for art and how it brings us together adding colour to life, and love for people in all our complexity and variety.
My body aches, my arms hurt and my brain is planning the next mural even when I sleep. But it’s doing something meaningful in this community, the value and extent of which is impossible to know. I love being able to share my art with people as part of the environment outside, not just on canvasses on walls inside galleries or houses.
I’m so grateful that the Council and Culture Liverpool chose me as the artist for this project, and for the faith that dot-art has in me to pull this off.
I’m also very grateful for my friends and volunteers who have ventured out to help, working on the street in unpredictable circumstances.
The adventure continues…probably Daisy Street.
Fabulous vision that looks even more magnificent in reality!