Annandale mural design revealed
The community got a sneak peek at the mural design for the ACCA Child Development Center building at the Art Appreciation Festival Aug. 17 at the Eileen Garnett Civic Space in Annandale.
The mural should be mostly completed in time for the Taste of Annandale, which will be held at the civic space on Sept. 21.
The design, by mural artist Pepe Gaka, features two children standing in a garden and talking to one another with a tin-can phone.
Related story: Fairfax County is developing a murals program
Before he starts a mural, Pepe Gaka spends some time researching the area and the building. “Because this building was and is a school, I knew I wanted to have children in the mural,” he said. The building served the community as Annandale Elementary School from 1926 to 1975.
“And because there is a garden here, I wanted to have native flowers,” he said, referring to the demonstration garden cultivated by Hands On Harvests at the Eileen Garnett Civic Space.
That’s the basic idea, but the mural design will be tweaked a bit before it is finalized. For example, the cats on the mural might be revised to depict the actual “community cats” who live nearby.
Before starting the painting, Pepe Gaka will power wash the wall, then cover it with two coats of white primer. For the mural, he will use the highest-quality exterior paint.
He plans to start as soon as he finishes a mural on the Hybla Valley Community Center in Alexandria.
During the Art Appreciation Festival, Pepe Gaka led a collaborative painting project on the retaining wall between the parking lot and plaza area at the Garnett park.
Pepe Gaka has painted murals all over the world. He currently divides his time between Italy and Hot Springs, Ark. Since 2009, he’s lived in Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the U.S.
Several arts-related businesses, agencies, nonprofits, artists, and crafters had displays at the Art Appreciation festival. There was also music by Crawdad, a storyteller, and hands-on craft projects.
Related story: Artists sought for mural project
Artist David Goldstein exhibited his paintings of local scenes, including Green Spring Gardens, the Clark House, and a Mason District Little League baseball game. Goldstein will bring some of his paintings to the Taste of Annandale on Sept. 21.
CAFE (Community Art for Everyone) got the public involved in making ornaments out of recycled materials for a tree sculpture on the lawn of the Eileen Garnett park. CAFE will also lead a community participation art project at the Taste of Annandale.
The mural on the ACCA building wall is the first such project in the Fairfax County Community Revitalization Section’s (CRS) Paint It, Fairfax! program.
The agency developed a database of 30 mural artists, says CRS Director Elizabeth Hagg. A community formed for the Annandale mural selected the top three candidates, interviewed them, discussed their design concepts, and submitted their recommendation to the CRS.
The county’s next mural project will be on a new commuter garage in Springfield. A separate mural committee will be formed for that project.
Does the artist know the string between the tin cans must be tight to work?
The painting looks beautiful but ……
“It’s beautiful but you did it wrong.”
Not a compliment.
Murals help make a community unique and beautiful.
LOVE IT!!
This is so beautiful :)!
Shouldn’t the cans be iphones?
Kid all have iphones these days in school
Does look great, I like it
Yes, the artist knows that the strings between the tin cans must be tight. If you look at the design concept you will see that the two tin cans are connected in fact.
Good explanation. Art is in the eye of the beholder. Joseph are you we Todd did?
Protip: make your tin can phone string taut in order for it to work.
I like the realistic depiction of flowers native to this area or otherwise used in many local gardens. I have one question – are the floating gray rectangles windows on the actual facade? Kind of hope so, otherwise they make no sense to me.
A piece like this is meant to bring joy, brighten the environment, and reflect the community and the spirit of the space. I think Mr. Gaka has done a very nice job of that.
His portfolio includes collages, a former parking lot transformed with fanciful shapes and a labyrinth, a striking blue lion, and a child blowing a soap bubble…preceded by a trail of butterflies. I suppose a few literal-minded malcontents might feel compelled to say, “But that’s going to hurt the butterflies!” To them, I say: avert your eyes from the horrifying sight of a child paddling a paper boat!
I look forward, as always, to Taste of Annandale and getting a good look at Mr. Gaka’s contribution to our community. Thank you, sir!
Love cats but please include a dog. Also, I see Asian and African-American children. Where is the Hispanic and Caucasian representation. Annandale has become such an amazing melting pot.
Or make it all Asian, or all Hispanic, or all white. Why are we compelled to tally every object in terms of racial representation? Not to mention pets! Its a nice painting that will brighten up Annandale – how about leaving it at that?
I’m offended by the lack of representation of flowering perennials.
sorry, I just find that not visually appealing. Just a personal opinion.