Ryan Versaw
Mural
The Mural Festival of Ashland began on Saturday, the 29th of June, in the morning with
music, people painting, and vendors in front of the Science Works Museum on East Main.
The Brothers Grime were the organizers of the event. Mural Fest involved artists using
the sidewalk and tall, square panels of wood to paint and draw with pastels and chalk. A booth
emitted melodic electronic music accompanied by lyrics from Helen Theta, a local singer. Past
the hall, which featured several vendors and a massive canvas, stood a circular drawing which
took up a large portion of concrete outside the front entrance. The mural, titled Her Voice Rising,
was in the making by Mera Oliviera.
Oliviera described her painting as a large circular piece composed of chalk and pastel on
the sidewalk leading up to the concrete building. In the piece, a girl emerges from a pool of
opaque water, the surface of which aligns with her mouth. Upon her head is a ring of light made
of butterflies which disintegrates as they slowly fly away.
Oliviera informed me that her piece was about a girl who has been stifled and emerges
into this world. Her piece was drawn from a photographic reference she held in her hand while I
watched.
“So, the piece is about a girl who has been silenced and she’s using her voice for the very
first time,” said Oliviera, “or after a time of realizing that she was trying to be shut down.”
Oliviera had worked on the piece for about eight hours the previous day and said she
would probably be done on the afternoon of the second day. Oliviera had made the trip from her
studio in Medford to Ashland so people could see her work. I asked Oliviera why she draws.
“I am an artist, and I think that art has the power to inform and transform,” Oliviera said,
“so I believe in the power of community, and I like to see that in action.”
Another vendor, Amy Godard, is an artist who designs print images. At Mural Fest, she
operated a booth where she displayed and sold her artworks. “I feel like it’s kind of an unnatural
compulsion, like, just like sleeping,” said Goddard.
Another booth was decked with prints made of screen and block. One of her pieces,
which featured a walkway that extended to the background of the print, particularly spoke to me.
At the bottom of the piece there was a police car, and above the car was a triangle with the all-seeing eye.
At the top of the print was the symbol with a trio of curved, parallel lines over a dot, used to show wireless internet. The screen print gave the artist a statement of private property and law enforcement using the internet and social media. In Godard’s words:
I turn toward the front entrance and see a mural about the size of a house of a
single story, decked in pink. Alex Brehmer, the artist, stands next to a portrait of a
woman with silky wet hair over her eyes. Long lashes shroud her pupils as she
tilts her head downward toward a trio of ladybugs on the side of the painting.
Brehmer spoke of her twin sister, who was the subject of the painting that took up part of
the breath from the festival. I asked her why she was a painter, while a boy next to her stared at
me.
“I don’t even think it is my strongest form of communication, but I love it,” said
Brehmer.
The entire festival took place in front of the science museum and featured a group of
artists who wanted a space to more prominently display their visual work. As the day passed and
the sun drew close to the hills, the last ray of light for the staff of Mural Fest came. Rhino, the
chosen name for one of the Brothers Grime, organizers of the festival, approached me and asked
his own question. I let the answer blow with the steady stream of thought I call the wind.
“We want nothing to do with your publication,” said Rhino.
For now, the festival continues until the 30th of June and will likely return to the Science
Works Museum the following year.