Local artist unveils murals

NORTH ADAMS – On Thursday, July 25, as part of DownStreet Art, local artist Peter Dudek unveiled a series of murals throughout downtown. The mural series, entitled “House Dreaming (and then some),” includes five different images posted in various places throughout the downtown area.

The public was invited to attend a mural “crawl” on Thursday, July 25, which was guided by Dudek. It departed at 6:30 p.m. from MCLA Gallery 51, 51 Main Street.

Installed on walls on Main Street, near parking lots and on side streets, the murals – which are DownStreet Art’s fourth public mural commission – create a back and forth, connect-the-dots type of experience for viewers that requires some backtracking to piece the series all together.

The images for the murals were selected from a series of digital collages Dudek made over the past decade. He considers them to be architectural cartoons.

According to Dudek, they represent a world – perhaps ours – in which buildings not only have a consciousness, but also the desire and ability to self-perpetuate. He explains, “Although placed in separate locations, the murals will not be far from each other. Thus, allowing one image to be seen shortly after the other. And, since they share imagery, a kind of double-take or déjà vu is experienced by the viewer.”

To create the murals, Dudek scanned images from different sources and pieced them together in Adobe Photoshop. The digital files then were sent to a commercial sign company, which prints the images on metal panels. The panels will be mounted onto building walls.

All of the murals will be up for at least one year before being auctioned off, with proceeds going to a not-for-profit organization.

Dudek was born and raised in Adams, Mass. He studied in New York City at the School of Visual Arts and Hunter College. He now teaches at both schools and also oversees the cultural programming at Bascom Lodge atop Mount Greylock.

Posted by Kameron Z. Spaulding on August 1, 2013. Filed under Community Events,Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry