Sebastian’s almost 40-year-old Community Center on Center Street was showing its age, in the blueish exterior and the nondescript, well-used interior.
Then Sebastian Parks and Recreation Superintendent Chris McCarthy approached Sebastian Art Club President Judy McNamara to see whether the members would be interested in creating a mural to brighten up the interior during the week when the building was closed while the exterior was being painted. Many members volunteered and 14 were able to accommodate the city’s schedule.
While the city’s painters were outside, applying a soft yellow over the faded blue and adding white trim, the artists planned for the inside. Their target was the wide north wall, 45’ x 15’, which, after the city painters had applied a white acrylic base coat, became a perfect “canvas” on which to create a mural.
Watercolorist Lori Kirkland came up with the initial sketch, other artists did a bit of tweaking and potter and painter Richard Ramirez and his artist wife Cynthia Bluewater blocked out the design on the wall, indicating rough shapes and colors.
And then the fun began. For an intense, fun-filled, highly creative four days, the 14 artists would come in on shifts and set to work. They had plenty of acrylic paint, brushes and other painterly paraphernalia, but, for the most part, egos were left safely at home. Although each artist contributed his or her special talent and creativity to a specifically assigned portion of the wall, it was a group effort: They helped one another, making suggestions, occasionally painting over each other’s work and just plain having a lot of fun.
The finished work is scene typical of the Sebastian area, depicting the lagoon, a pier, birds, boats, grasses, seagrapes, palms, an egret, a tortoise, dolphins, fish, green sea turtles, pelicans and gulls, and the inlet bridge.
All but one of the artists, Grace Savage, gathered at the Community Center to talk about their experience creating so large a piece of art with so large a bunch of talented fellow artists.
Watercolor artist Darlene Kratovel liked the idea of leaving “a little bit of ourselves” in the work, and although she doesn’t work with acrylic often, she created the seagrapes and the sea turtle and, she smiles, “I contributed to everybody else’s. It was a challenge and fun, but I’ll go back to my watercolors.”
“It was as privilege to meet and work with people you usually don’t get to (even though) they made me stay within the lines,” said artist Sheila Lougheed.
“She did the grasses,” McNamara said.
“Yes, I could splash it on,” Lougheed added. “It was so much fun!”
“I’ve done quite a few murals when I taught high school art,” said Ramirez, “but this is my first one here. I’m looking forward to doing more.”
“This is my first mural experience,” said Cynthia Ramirez. “I did mostly the blocking. It was fascinating to see it come together.”
Ray Ground works in watercolor and acrylic. “It was my first mural. The interaction was fun. People would do something and later you see something changed.” He pointed, “I painted the bridge.”
McNamara, noting Ground was often the only man in the group, teased, “He fit in like one of the girls.” “Well, I’ve been married for 40 years and raised two daughters,” he replies.
Susan Lavender said she’d never done anything like this before. “It was kind of overwhelming, but, oh my gosh, everybody was so nice. I like oils but now I’m all over the place. Judy (McNamara) has stretched me so much.”
Kirkland, who had created the original design, is a watercolorist and agrees it was different with acrylics. “I did the island and some of the creatures. It was my first time doing a mural and really neat working with everybody.”
“I have done murals before, at work,” says acrylic artist Kathleen Richter, “I did some for the New York Telephone Company and one for the Ft. Myers City Hall. But I’ve never done one with a lot of people and all the different styles of talent and different methods. This is fantastic. I did the gopher tortoise on the bottom and the boat.”
Ann Emery works in oil but “I’m sure learning acrylics lately. I helped with the Moose mural (an exterior mural for the Moose which the Club did earlier in the year), so this is my second. Everybody knew what they wanted to do. I worked on the background. I enjoyed the project, and it turned out beautifully.”
“I dabble in watercolor,” said Jean Adams. “But acrylic is great. I’ve never worked on a mural before and I did the baseboard – and the pathway. But a lot of it got covered. We worked with a different group every day and I was fascinated by the way it went. There is some real talent in this town.”
“I do watercolor, so to speak,” said Mary Rahmig. “Judy is my mentor. I helped with the Moose mural. Everyone did such a fantastic job. I’m glad to be a part of it. It’s great to do things for the community, and,” she laughs, “I’d try it again as long as I can have eight other people telling me what to do.”
Oil painter Richard Gillmor had fun working with the group. In addition to working on the palm trees and the Sebastian sign on the mural, he painted two other palms trees, on either side of the mirrored stage on the opposite wall. “Everybody had their niche. Somebody was up on the ladder and someone else was below getting paint on their hair. I also did the pelicans flying because nobody wanted to get up that high.”
The office of Recreation Supervisor Kathy Falzone is in the south end of the Community Center. She had been on vacation when the mural project began. “I was in shock when I came back and saw all the people running around like busy bees.
“I can look at it right from my office, the turtles and the birds, it feels like I’m outside. And when people come in for classes, they look at it in utter amazement. It makes people so happy.”
“I think it’s really good for the club to get together and do these projects,” said McNamara. You learn so much about people, and their lives. All in all everybody worked together very well. I’d encourage them to add stuff, to not be offended.”
The Art Club does several community projects throughout the year, and raises money for scholarships. For more information on the Art Club, contact McNamara at 321-258-0987.