Biden Expressway mural painting on the way
Oct. 3—John Park promises color, lots of color. The artist from Los Angeles will soon begin painting new murals on the retaining walls that bookend the Biden Expressway near Jefferson Avenue in downtown Scranton.
"Whenever I can, I always try to bring as much color into my pieces as possible just because it's kind of a basic visual component. ... When you have that, it allows people to kind of interact with (a mural) more," Park said. "They (county officials) wanted to make sure it was as colorful as possible."
Lackawanna County commissioned Park to paint the murals, but held off on releasing his rendering until last week. The county commissioners voted in August to pay Park $173,955.
Last year, the county hired Fabcor Inc., of Jessup, for $44,870 to fix cracks and other defects in the walls. Earlier this year, the commissioners voted to pay Hudak Waterproofing Co., of Taylor, $128,000 to pressure wash and coat the walls with a primer.
Using a combination of aerosol and house paints, Park will start on the outbound lane wall shortly, but won't work on the inbound wall until the spring because the mural paints require warmer weather.
The murals will cover more than 12,000 square feet and reflect common activities that play out here as the four seasons unfold — fishing, skiing, high school football, swimming and fall foliage.
The county went through two rounds of submissions before settling on Park, whose fiancee, Julie Hunter, grew up in the Abingtons. The county received 26 proposals, including from a famed Brazilian muralist as well as an artist in France.
"We spent weeks each just delving into the history of these people," county Deputy Chief of Staff Traci Harte said.
"It just came down to ... who's getting the theme the commissioners saw, the vision of the mural," said Maureen McGuigan, the county arts and culture director. "They were all super-talented artists."
Park "actually listened to our theme the best," Harte said. "Every one was beautiful and different. But some just were way out there or took their own artistic view of what the theme should be, and (I thought) is the community as a whole going to understand this or am I going to have to spend the next five years of my life explaining this to them? We would argue about it all the time."
Park said Hunter's family alerted him to the project and suggested he apply. A former high school art teacher already active in the city's art world, he began painting murals in 2012 after the principal got caught embezzling the school's funds. He contributed a mural to dozens painted in Venice, California, the famed beach town. Since then, he's concentrated on painting murals in Southern California, but also has one in Boston and another in Las Vegas.
That the mural will decorate a road named for the president, a Scranton native, adds pressure to get it right, Park said.
"I think overall I know that this is kind of a big deal for Scranton and obviously it being on the Biden Expressway makes it a very important piece," Park, 49, said. "My main thing is I just want to do right by the city of Scranton."
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.
