I wish I could post a photo here, of the mural that has been creating a terrible fuss here in Maine over the past two weeks. But I can't seem to get one off the newspapers or online media and onto my blog, so we'll have to do without. The gist of the matter is this though: A few years ago, Judy Taylor of Tremont created a mural in 11 panels depicting a history of the labor movement in Maine. It hung in the State Labor Department these past few years with nary a protest or really much comment.
However, a few weeks ago, our Governor allegedly got an anonymous letter complaining that the mural was anti-business and should be taken down. So our Governor took it down surreptitiously over a weekend without any warning or hearing. It has been in hiding ever since.
It has been my experience with murals that once one has been removed from sight, they fall largely into the domain of maintenance or security personnel. Some of them know how to care for a work of art; many do not. Once, when a large and valuable mural was in the process of being stolen from Stilwell Hall on the old Fort Ord in Marina, CA, the MP's who chased off the thieves, took the mural and stuffed it into a janitor's closet in the Police Station, where it remained for the better part of three months. The public assumed that it was being taken care of because the thieves had been chased off.
After about three months, I began to wonder where the mural was. A search was launched with the Commandante of the Fort helping, and lo and behold, the mural was found rolled up and standing in the janitors' closet in an old wooden barracks. Paint had been chipped off and it was in danger of being mildewed. It took nearly $50,000 and six months to restore that mural, which had been painted by Vinegar Joe Stilwell's daughter in a Chinese manner, and was 8' high and 11' long. It hangs now in a lobby at Cal State University Monterey Bay, very near where it hung originally.
Public Art is rarely "high" art. Public mural art usually tells a story; it is a visual narrative that communicates stories with images instead of words. Often, we do not understand what the story is, or how important it has become to us, until it is taken away. Often also, we never get the story back. The WPA murals in Stilwell Hall at Fort Ord were saved with the unlikely cooperation between the US Army and Cal State University. The State of Maine could use some unlikely cooperation now - between Governor Lepage and the rest of us who would like to read the story in Judy Taylor's murals once again. And then, let's move on!
Easter brought spring to East Boothbay. Suddenly the thermometer has broken the 60 degree mark, much to everyone's relief. People are beginning to flood the roads into town; Sugarloaf-stickered cars are beginning to reappear; lobster boats are filling up with traps; yards are emptying of traps and buoys; daffodils are popping up.
