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Painting a power pole is one of the more challenging projects I’ve taken on as an artist. Our tiny town of Theodore in Central Queensland (population around 450) celebrated its Centenary recently with the Chamber of Commerce commissioning a group of 6 local artists, supported by a brilliant project manager, to paint power poles which lead up the street to our town water tower, which also received a makeover in the form of a massive mural.
We were tasked with creating something that reflects our own personal connection to the area, presenting it as if viewing it through some kind of portal. All this on a convex surface 18 inches across and up to about 6 feet high. (It sounds easy when you say it fast!)
Coming up with a concept that worked in the tall, narrow format AND didn’t get lost and weird around the curve was the most challenging part.
I settled on the idea of wheat heads - my family grow wheat, as do many farmers in the area - which in this project became the portals giving the viewer a glimpse of the colourful and vibrant community that supports this little town.
In order to achieve some cohesiveness among the poles, we decided to have bands framing the art - kids handprints around the bottom to signify the future (the handprints on my pole are those of my own grandchildren, which feels really special) and around the top, one of our much loved indigenous artists created a traditional design to cap each piece, symbolising everyone coming together.
Concept Design
If I'm honest, the 'portal' idea had me stumped for a long while. Caves, keyholes, frames? How to render something in a way that would make sense, when from any angle the viewer can only see a narrow piece of the art? The art needed to be tall and narrow, yet offer some sense of depth in the narrow vertical format.
Enter the mock up. Once I had a measurement for the required finished size of the piece on a flat plane, I was able to scale that measurement down, get some ideas on paper, then wrap them into cylinders to test how the images might look full size.
Painting in public
Splashing and slapping a riot of colour over the prepared pole as the base layer for the final art was loads of fun, even if it did turn a few heads as locals passed, trying to figure out what is this supposed to 'BE?' Paint was brushed, rolled, smeared with a stick, sponged, stencilled, stamped with bubble wrap and cling wrap, and flicked on over the course of the first day of being artists in residence on the main street.
This public painting thing is not for the meek or feint of heart! When you're in full view of an entire community as you create, you get plenty of unsolicited feedback and advice - most of it supportive, but not all of it encouraging! Onlookers don't have the benefit of your vision in their minds, and every artwork goes through all kind of stages, and the messy middle is generally the longest stage.
Day two of painting on this pole involved sketching in the wheat heads and blocking out the negative space to slowly 'reveal' the design, which you can see rapidly unfolding in this time lapse video:
Insights and understandings
What I learned...
Public art projects run smoothly for the artist/s when you have the support of an efficient, effective and supportive project manager. Thanks for everything, Jess Weimar!
Having a clear, well thought out and tested concept before you leave the studio gives you great scaffolding for showing up on public display to create, AND
Staying open to changes as you create the work means you won't fully lose the plot when things seem a little different when you scale your idea up. There weren't too many deviations from the original plan on this one, but the fenced off area around a big, soggy hole right beside the pole, DID impact the way I was able to access the face of the pole closest to the fence, and the subsequent design did have to morph a little.
Fine detail is wasted on a large scale. What you need are strong, bold shapes, areas of colour, texture and strong contrast. You'll spend at least as much time walking back and forth from your painting to a distant vantage point to see how it's looking from a distance as you will painting. (Wear very comfy shoes!)
The passing parade can be a delight or a horror - sometimes both! Invite your inner critic to take the day off, and keep your mock ups handy; it can help keep you confident and on track if you can show people what your vision looks like.
Work with a friend (or two!) While I was painting, there were anything up to four other artists working on their poles at the same time. Visiting one another, encouraging and troubleshooting with and for each other nurtured our creative connections in a beautiful and lasting way.
While in theory you could mix any colour you wanted from red, blue, yellow, black and white, the reality is that grabbing a few sample pots of the exact colours you have in mind - especially the colours that are trickier to mix, like bright pinks, purples and teals - takes heaps of pressure off when you begin to paint.
Get photographs and video! Ideally, have someone tend to that for you. I would have
enjoyed not having to think about visually documenting the process myself - but I've already had multiple opportunities to be happy I did.
Painting a power pole may have been the most challening projectsI've ever taken on, but it was also one of the most rewarding and satisfying. Proof that getting out of your comfort zone delivers proportionally way more benefit than discomfort.
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