Young artists paint murals in Washington
Three artists have begun work on three different murals in downtown Washington this week. This one is on the south-facing wall of Mark Kennison’s building on North Main Street.
Allie Menhart, 22, of Wheeling, W.Va., spent Tuesday afternoon painting a mural on the south-facing wall of Mark Kennison’s building on North Main Street, where Ross Farm Mercantile is a tenant.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Allie Menhart, 22, of Wheeling, W.Va., spent Tuesday afternoon painting a mural on the south-facing wall of Mark Kennison’s building on North Main Street in downtown Washington.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
The start of a lion’s head mural, painted by 16-year-old Selah Taggert, decorates the wall of her father, Chad Taggert’s, building, which houses his accounting firm, Taggert, Mitchell & Associates in Pine Alley in Washington.
Downtown Washington walls will see a splash of color this week as three young artists will be painting murals.
The three murals on North Main Street are the start of a project by the Dreamers Company to brighten the downtown. Todd Ashmore, one of the board members, said the Washington nonprofit is interested in creating a downtown renaissance.
“Art needs to be a piece of it,” Ashmore said. “It just seems like art brings color, it brings vibrancy, it brings life. We located a few young artists that were interested in donating their time, and none of them have done murals before.”
Two of the murals will take over the south-facing wall of Mark Kennison’s building on North Main Street. One will be painted by Kristen Miller, a photographer and artist from Charlottesville, Va., who moved to Pittsburgh in 2004. The other will be done by 22-year-old Allie Menhart, who lived in Washington for years before just recently moving to Wheeling, W.Va. She works at Painting with a Twist in Washington.
The third will be on the wall of Chad Taggert’s building that houses his accounting firm, Taggert, Mitchell & Associates, in Pine Alley. Chad is a Dreamers Company board member, and his 16-year-old daughter, Selah, a sophomore at Trinity, will be painting that mural of a lion’s head.
“I wanted something bright and colorful,” Selah said. “I like making stuff, and painting is a way for me to express myself.”
Some of the challenges of taking on a mural for the first time, Selah said, is blending the colors and getting the scale right. Menhart, too, said the scale is one of her greatest challenges with this project.
“When you start to paint things that are bigger and bigger, you have to almost be looking from 10 feet back, but you have to be a foot away,” she said. “It’s really difficult to get that perspective.”
Menhart is painting a “pop-art take” on the arms in Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam.” None of the murals are complete yet, but Menhart’s vision is for two connecting black and white arms with neon colors in the background. She’s painted the arms before, and when she ran the idea past Kennison and Ashmore, they approved it.
During the four years she lived in Washington, Allie was involved with Life Church, the Dreamers Company and their teen outreach program Mission Washington. That’s why she jumped at the opportunity to use her talent in this mural project.
“Aaron Miller, the director of the Dreamers Company, has been a mentor to me for a large part of my life,” Menhart said. “He has instilled in me a passion for community, restoration, beautification and taking ownership of the places that we live. You want to be proud of the place that you’re from, and anything you can do to add value is just something good to do.”
Miller will be painting a re-creation of a photograph she took of girls in dresses releasing Chinese lanterns, Ashmore said. Each painting costs about $400 to $500 in supplies, like drop cloths, paints and primer, but Ashmore said the Dreamers received donation from local businesses to pay for it.
The murals are meant to be interactive, Ashmore said, so people passing by can get photos or selfies with them in the background. He expects the majority of the painting to be completed by next week.
Dreamers will host an Art in the Alley event from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 22 in Pine Alley to celebrate the completion of the murals. There will be live music, hors d’oeuvres, and a chance for people to interact with the artists and “watch them finish the pieces,” Ashmore said.
The event will be capped at 50 people, and will be moved to The Presidents Pub if it rains. The cost is $40 per person, with the proceeds going toward building a fund for additional murals downtown.
“We’re hopeful this will become self-sustaining,” Ashmore said.