Public Arts Commission chooses garage mural design

The Public Arts Commission of Oxford (PACO) voted during its meeting on Aug. 11 to recommend one mural out of 64 submissions to the Oxford City Council for a final vote.

The mural, which will take up a total of 488.39 square feet on the corner of the Oxford Municipal Parking Garage at 6 W. Walnut St., will be positioned on the corner facing both Main and High streets.

Out of the three finalists PACO considered Monday, a trompe l’oeil, or optical illusion, piece submitted by artist Mathew Sharum will be submitted to the city council for review during its regular meeting on Aug. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Oxford Courthouse.

Sharum’s mural submission tricks the eye to believe a large chunk of the garage has been cut out, allowing the viewer to look “through” the top at the sky behind it. 

In Sharum’s submission, the corner of the garage has been replaced with a waterfall flowing down what he said was an Ohio-like landscape, with a bird of prey peeking from the side. A red pick-up truck leans just over the ruined garage roof in the mural, as if it’s about to fall into the water below, and an onlooker peeks from beside a painted door at the garage roof entrance.

If approved, the mural would be painted on panels in a studio and installed on the garage corner, according to PACO Chair and City Councillor Amber Franklin.

“I liked the three-dimensional aspect of it. … I thought that was creative,” Franklin told the Oxford Free Press after the meeting. “I think more color, like more pops of color, I think, would be appealing to me.”

The other two submissions, while more-brightly colored, were not chosen by some PACO members because they said they were not representative of Oxford.

“I like the color aspect on the other two,” Franklin said. “I think we had some questions about the one that said Oxford, Ohio, on the side in terms of how much it reflects the community.” 

She said of why the mural is important, “I think public art really can pull people in. They become conversation pieces. They’re part of creative placemaking. And I think that it adds vibrancy to a community. … It allows people to kind of galvanize around a space and create sort of a focal point for a community.”

PACO member Robert Benson said of Sharum’s submission during the meeting, “I think it’s something that would draw people to go look at it, to see what is actually happening there and to study it.”

The submissions by the other two finalists, Rafael Blanco and Snack Break Studio, will also be placed on the agenda for the public to review. Anyone wishing to comment on any of the three submissions may sign up to speak during the public comment period.

Franklin said part of the city council’s Comprehensive Plan is to have creative placemaking in Oxford through festivals, activities and public art, including the garage mural.

The city, she said, originally budgeted $50,000 for the mural, although the three final submissions are all under budget, asking under $25,000. Franklin said after the call was sent out, the process of receiving submissions and selecting the finalists took months.

The installation is expected to be completed by the end of the year. 

In other business, PACO decided on a new title for its third seasonal Haiku competition: “Haiku on Ice.”

A haiku is a poem consisting of three lines with five, seven and five syllable counts, respectively.

Although the details of the competition have not yet been finalized, Franklin said in the past, PACO has chosen finalists from its submissions to be displayed on window-clings in businesses around Oxford. Last year, she said there were around 70 submissions and 16 finalists.

“That’s another type of public art that engages public input in a real way,” Franklin said.

Past competitions were “Haiku in Bloom,” which had a summer theme, and “Harvest Haiku.”

Franklin said in a few months, there will be a public call for haikus, and participants may submit their work at cityofoxford.org.