We’ve recently noticed two new directions that large image or mural communications have gone recently, both very focused on “realism.” One form is writing about “nothing” or the perceived need to give people a “break” in billboard communications and the other is taking the ability to create realistic art to the extreme of actually tricking the eye by painting what might be perceived not as art but as disaster. The former type of minimalist communication is intended to turn billboard works around, to communicate by not communicating. It reflects the very real “message overload” world we living — in the United States and other capitalist countries how people in those cultures have subconsciously trained their minds to not look at obvious attempts to advertise and the recognition that breaking through this new subconscious pre-occupation is possible simply by reversing what is expected to a minimalist result.

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No where in possibly the world do murals make more of a statement than the Berlin wall. One side of the Berlin Wall is an almost mile long row of 106 murals painted by 118 artists back in 1990. The images were created to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, and many images are relevant to that event and The Wall’s impact in Europe for decades prior.

These murals were decayed with many are barely recognizable.

This week artists started repainting the decaying faded Berlin Wall murals and apparently they’re almost finished. The support of the German government is to be commended, having spent over EU3M to fund the renovation. Having considered demolition, the German government recognized the legacy of not only the Wall, but of the famous murals and their place in art and culture. Throughout history, murals have symbolized and at times caused political unrest, both pre-conflict and to celebrate conflict resolution between fighting cultures. The Berlin Wall murals now restored carries on this tradition.

Having a mural is really like living with a mural — you don’t ‘hang’ a mural as you do a painting or a poster — a wall mural is a living thing that takes over its immediate environment making surrounding objects fade into the visual background. It warms the room, removing your mind and your subconscious into the image, transporting you to another place.  Mural size is all important — can you imagine the lack of effect a muralist would have if their creations were the size of average paintings? Large images send stronger, louder messages than images the size of photos, posters or paintings.

Increasingly technology is enhancing what can be done with digital photos. Wallpaper and various other home decorating stores are growing their product lines of mural-type wallpapers, or photo mural products. Photo murals were rare just a few short years ago but are increasing in popularity and affordability. High tech mural products create amazing interiors that bring the outdoors inside or magnify images for intense artistic effect. Adding size to images goes beyond changing the ambience of a room; large images alter the mood of occupants entirely.

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With the coming of age of digital cameras in the last decade or so, we noticed that technology and software was opening up what is possible and affordable for photographers and interior-minded people that weren’t necessarily artists.  Kneson Software (www.kneson.com), a company that already had created a sophisticated photo enlargement program called Imagener realized that it was only natural to use the engine inside Imagener and make a mural program able to take enlarged images and print them in panels much the same way billboard advertisements are produced. (more…)

I’m continuously amazed how murals and stories about murals either point to a project or source of inspiration or the complete opposite — “tagging” and graffiti writing landing perpetrators behind bars. I even read one story that confused the two — it made the “muralist” sound like an artist but police charged him as a “serial tagger” caught while painting “mural” (ref.: Cops: Serial Tagger Nabbed Painting Mural and Man Arrested For Painting On Bridge Wall). That muddies the semantic waters regarding the true meaning of what murals are even further — are they art or illegal graffiti? Even beautiful artistic murals I suppose are considered illegal if the artist has no regard for what is a legal and appropriate canvas, right? (more…)

More than any other type of local media, wall murals command attention in an enduring manner. Billboards and advertisements on television and radio only hope to capture a brief moment of our attention, but a well constructed mural that is properly maintained and preserved can be appreciated for years while also possibly communicating a local agenda or providing ancillary uses.

An anti-drug mural has been restored in Vallejo, CA. The original artist wanted to make a loud and enduring statement after his friend was killed in a drug related incident. A community in New Zealand just today reported about the commanding attention of wall murals — one is effective for speed bumps. “Smeaton Drive now had “natural speed bumps,” said one of the residences. “Everyone who drives past slows down to look at it.” An art collective group called Visual Love and artist Erik Beltran recently finished a huge mural in a mall in Fresno, CA. “Every time someone walks by, whether its kids to senior citizens, they just smile when they look up” says the building owner.

I’ve increasingly noticed a trend of creating murals where ugly, defacing graffiti used to be. Here in San Diego where I live this trend has been growing for some time, and it seems to be growing elsewhere as this story from Canada states - see “Police turn to artists to stop writing on the wall.”

Graffiti is the “sleazy side of murals” and I’ve always wondered why anyone would do it. I was on a recent trip by train from Atlantic City to Philadelphia, PA and noticed all the graffiti covering railway underpasses. Who does this? And with barely any of it understandable, what are they trying to convey? My only understanding up to this point is that it is to “mark territory” for gangs and the like, but it seems so creepy.

As I struggle to understand how the mind of someone that does this type of thing works, I also find it curious that the one thing that has been found to curb and even stop repeated graffiti tagging is to replace it with actual mural art — and that this works consistently and with most taggers. Is this a statement that even the criminal mind as a social group has a collective boundary to not destroy art?