Client: Arts Huntsville

Overview

This acrylic painting on linen canvas is 12’x5’4″x2 1/4″. I wanted to create an artwork that records downtown Huntsville as it is today (when I started this project), that serves to document our city’s history, and that provides an appropriate viewing experience for visitors. I proposed to create a 12’x5’ aerial view painting of downtown Huntsville that captured the construction of the new City Hall. I wanted the painting to engage viewers, inspire reflection on civic duty and virtue through its subject matter, and evoke a memorable sense of place authentic to Huntsville through the inclusion of our communities’ unique features and landmarks. An aerial view of downtown allows the inclusion of many landmarks and key locations of municipal government in the composition, and I hope may give visitors reason to pause and think of the city from a different perspective.

Goals

I wanted to create an artwork that records downtown Huntsville as it is today (when I started this project), that serves to document our city’s history, and that provides an appropriate viewing experience for visitors. I proposed to create a 12’x5’ aerial view painting of downtown Huntsville that captured the construction of the new City Hall. I wanted the painting to engage viewers, inspire reflection on civic duty and virtue through its subject matter, and evoke a memorable sense of place authentic to Huntsville through the inclusion of our communities’ unique features and landmarks. An aerial view of downtown allows the inclusion of many landmarks and key locations of municipal government in the composition, and I hope may give visitors reason to pause and think of the city from a different perspective. I also had inspiration from an old bird’s eye view drawing of Huntsville from 1871. It is astonishing to see how Huntsville once was. I chose a vantage point that seems to be unique, and I wanted to use this opportunity to create a work at great scale. My hope is to bring pleasant memories to people who knew the old downtown and remind younger generations what downtown looked like in 2022.

Process

Arts Huntsville posted an RFQ for local artists to submit proposals providing public art installations for a new city hall building. After two stages of reviews, I was selected along with 9 other artists to create artworks to be installed in the city hall. I coordinated with Arts Huntsville's public art committee to confirm and finalize specific project design characteristics and details including exact dimensions, artistic composition, materials and installation methods. The Public art committee required artists to submit progress updates to review significant project milestones. I created the painting in my studio, then transported the canvas to the installation site and assembled it there before final installation.