Join the Two Writing Teachers blog for the Slice of Life Challenge.
I admit it, I use Facebook for news. I may not be getting the most current, real news, but I’ve come to trust my “friends” to help me see what I need to see.
One of these friends is Phanat Xanamane. Phanat (pronounced Pah-not) created a community organization called Envision da Berry. The Berry (da Berry) is what New Iberia is commonly called. Anyway, this weekend Phanat posted about Mary Lacy.
Mary Lacy showed up last Monday with a lift truck ready to paint a mural on an old downtown building. After I saw Phanat’s post, I had to go check it out for myself.
Mary Lacy is from Vermont. She is an artist on a mission. She plans to travel all over the US to paint murals. I asked her if she is being paid. She said that only her expenses are paid. Benjamin Moore is her paint supplier. They will be promoting her tour through a video that is not out yet. She hopes to gain some fame and recognition from her tour. Well, she has certainly gotten this in New Iberia.
On Saturday when I talked with Mary, she said she hadn’t gotten much work done because people were out and about and stopping to talk with her. I took a few pictures of the paint cans, her truck, and the mural in progress.
“How do you do this on such a large scale?”
A quick one word response, “Math.” She lays out her design on a grid, plots it out by measuring and taping. To her, the image is just a plot on a graph. Amazing math work here!
Mary has one stipulation; she takes complete artist control of the project. For New Iberia, she chose the alligator. She wants her murals to represent the area she is working in. An alligator is certainly appropriate for bayou country.
Phanat shared this video interview on Facebook.
Alligator mural in process
I wish Mary luck in her adventures. According to the Daily Iberian, Mary has four cities remaining on her 10-city tour: El Paso, Texas; Santa Monica, California; Portland, Oregon; and Bethel, Vermont.
Mary Lacy is spreading love with paint strokes.
Reflections on the Teche 
Love that you went to see & to talk with the artist. I love seeing murals all over our city, and there are some awesome ones in what is called our “art district”. Margaret, one year my continuing (8th grade) students researched & created a mural as a gift to the school. Maybe you can get this artist to help your class do that? Just an idea! It was a wonderful project!
Another neat New Iberia catch-up. I want to share the blog with my daughter and on my Mountainair NM Facebook page for the mural. I lived there 15 years before moving to Colorado. It’s mural town, and the local arts council has an ongoing community art program.
http://www.manzanomountainartcouncil.org/mosaics/
Your post reminded me that I announced a (tentative) places theme for March SOLSC and put me to thinking about a post of murals from places I’ve lived. Davis CA murals took me to Local Wiki, https://localwiki.org/
This is so interesting. She is spreading love and light through art!
So fascinating – I look forward to the video someday, and a book as well!
Brave, talented girl! Thanks for sharing.
What a colorful slice of life. I feel more artistic just reading that. I want to see the final alligator
Artists are interesting people, always looking for opportunities to “speak” through their art. I’ll have to check out the Santa Monica location!
Kim
[…] 3. I drive by the mural every day. Here’s the latest progress. You can see my post about this mural here. […]
[…] week I wrote a post about a mural being painted downtown by Mary Lacy from Vermont. She has made great progress on the alligator; […]