Artist lining up sponsors for underpass mural below Route 22 in Murrysville
Jan. 29—As she works her way through the design of her largest mural to date, Florida artist and Export native Christina Donahoe is also lining up partners in the project, which would cover a popular spot for graffiti on a William Penn Highway underpass in Murrysville.
"I've been in touch with the municipality and the county, and I'm working to ensure everything is in compliance to submit my final proposal and get the legal agreement between PennDOT and the municipality," Donahoe said.
That legal agreement will run through Robb Dean, PennDOT's assistant district executive for maintenance in District 12.
"We've done this type of permitting process elsewhere in the district," Dean said.
"When a request has come in for a mural, we always have them work back through the (local) municipality. We get it reviewed and ensure that we can approve what they want to do, where they want to do it."
To prepare for that review, Donahoe is seeking community partners and sponsors, and working with a Westmoreland Heritage Trail committee.
"At this point, I have more than 30 individuals and businesses that intend to donate," Donahoe said. "I'm going to be working with the trail committee to set pricing for full-color business logos, black-and-white business logos, memorial donations and individual donor names that will be worked into the design to recognize sponsors."
Donahoe said her goal for a large portion of the space is creating a Murrysville-based "postcard" design based on the vintage postcards people used to send from vacation spots around the country.
"I want to capture all of the community's traits into one timeless design," she said. "I also intend to carry the design across all four supporting structures and the opposing wall to ensure graffiti taggers have no space left to vandalize," she said.
Dean said that as long as the project has financial backing — PennDOT does not contribute state tax money to these types of projects — his role is to ensure the mural is appropriate and created safely.
"We treat each location individually," he said. "We have to be cautious about what type of structure they want to paint, and what sort of project the artist wants to do. We also don't want to put someone in harm's way. But if someone has interest, we're happy to look at the plan."
Donahoe will to spend the remainder of winter working on the design, with plans to present it to PennDOT officials sometime in the spring.
Anyone interested in sponsoring the project can visit Christina
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
