{"id":1718,"date":"2014-06-17T14:19:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T18:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2014-09-25T12:23:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T16:23:01","slug":"ready-mixed-murals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/2014\/06\/17\/ready-mixed-murals\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready-Mixed Murals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turning concrete mixer trucks into swirling, spiraling works of art<\/h2>\n

By Andrew Thurston<\/h4>\n

I spy with my little eye something\u2026really big.<\/strong> And iridescent. And concrete-spattered.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since graduating from CFA, Andrea Bergart (\u201908) has painted murals in the US and in Africa. Photo by Shanita Sims<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We\u2019re playing I Spy the Mural Cement Truck. There are three to spot: hot neon leopard print, African kente cloth, and paper clip-patterned. United Transit Mix\u2019s 30,000-pound turning, churning art galleries\u2014sprayed and rolled with bright murals by artist Andrea Bergart<\/a> (\u201908) in 2013\u2014are a kaleidoscopic spiral against the cement grays and muted steel reds of New York\u2019s construction sites.<\/p>\n

The company does a \u201clot of high-rise work\u201d in Manhattan and Brooklyn, says United boss Tony Mastronardi, and the polychromatic trucks are out on the street most days. Since Bergart painted the trucks, her friends in the Big Apple have been playing I Spy the Mural Cement Truck. (Join the fun: If you spot one, post a pic here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Mastronardi has been in the construction business for 40 years and he\u2019s never seen anything like this. \u201cThe truck was due for a paint job. She asked to do it; so I said, \u2018Pick a truck.\u2019 I\u2019m open to new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a Lisa Frank-inspired, rainbow-colored, leopard-print cement truck?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see what I could get away with,\u201d says Bergart. \u201cThe machinery is such a masculine thing, the construction sites are such macho places, so I wanted to see if I could get some hot pink and leopard print in there. I was surprised they let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was nice,\u201d says Mastronardi. Nice enough that he let Bergart paint a second truck. And a third. (His favorite: the paper clip-daubed truck for \u201cthe colors, the design.\u201d)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Andrea Bergart had \u201cgotten a little bit tired of stationary images on a wall, the typical mural\u201d\u2014so she turned to cement mixer trucks for inspiration. Photo by Simon Biswas<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Built to Scale<\/h3>\n

It started with a scale model. Bergart used a toy concrete truck to test different patterns and techniques, making short videos to see how the prints worked as moving pieces. The idea of painting the trucks had come to her out of the blue\u2014a graffiti-streaked wall plus parked mixer trucks equaled inspiration\u2014but she had also \u201cjust gotten a little bit tired of stationary images on a wall, the typical mural.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since graduating from CFA, Bergart has painted murals in the US and in Africa; she also teaches an after-school mural program for kids. Based in a mixed-use studio in Queens\u2014an old sewing factory with her apartment upstairs and studio downstairs\u2014Bergart keeps about 10 canvas paintings in progress, too, but likes breaking free to \u201ccollaborate and be outside. I love seeing a large image\u2014it\u2019s as simple as that. I want to see a really big image outside that\u2019s not associated with a commercial agenda\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009I think art can be more accessible that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI accept that it\u2019s a cement truck, a piece of heavy-duty machinery that\u2019s going to get dirty and beaten up and backed into things. That\u2019s part of it, too: having it decay.\u201d\u2014Andrea Bergart<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bergart has exhibited her paintings and textiles in New York, Massachusetts, and Texas, but she doesn\u2019t just want to see her art hanging on exclusive gallery walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best work I see in New York makes me want to run back into my studio and make something, and that\u2019s a feeling of excitement for me. I want the murals to be celebratory, and be funny and fun and happy. I think a lot of people are excited about the cement truck murals in particular just because they\u2019re so accessible and they are out in the public; it\u2019s not like you have to go to a studio or gallery to see them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first two trucks, Bergart used vinyl car magnets to make templates, sticking them on the steel drums to guide the painting. The paper clips design was more freehand: spray paint for a ghost image; brushes and rollers for the finish. The paint had to be industrial-grade, tough enough to withstand a pounding on the construction site and a daily wash down with additive-laced water.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn each truck, I was trying to figure out the paint that would last the longest; at the same time, I accept that it\u2019s a cement truck, a piece of heavy-duty machinery that\u2019s going to get dirty and beaten up and backed into things. That\u2019s part of it, too: having it decay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becoming Unique<\/h3>\n

The final images don\u2019t exactly match the sketches on the toy trucks. Bergart says her approach to all her work is to produce a lot, then edit a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cImages change and I like that things can be included at the site,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to respond to the environment. I usually do a thumbnail sketch or a smaller drawing, but a painting is its own thing, too, and I want it to deviate a certain amount and be its own image.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see what I could get away with,\u201d says Bergart. \u201cThe machinery is such a masculine thing, the construction sites are such macho places, so I wanted to see if I could get some hot pink and leopard print in there.\u201d Photo by Simon Biswas<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The third truck\u2014interjecting blue, orange, and green islands of color\u2014only got its standout addition in the final moment: \u201cI added paper clips during the last day; I thought it was recognizable and humorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hopes to do more work with United Transit Mix, but her next grand scheme involves a different kind of moving canvas: sailboat canvas. Bergart has a grant to travel to South Africa and plans to \u201ccelebrate the harbor in Cape Town\u201d by painting a sail. There are no toy boats in progress yet. \u201cI\u2019m reaching out to sail manufacturers and trying to figure out how to translate an image and the best technique to execute that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, while I Spy the Mural Cement Truck is open only<\/i> to the 60 million or so residents and visitors to New York for now, expect the global edition to start soon.<\/p>\n

Video by Simon Biswas<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turning concrete mixer trucks into swirling, spiraling works of art By Andrew Thurston I spy with my little eye something\u2026really big. And iridescent. And concrete-spattered. Since graduating from CFA, Andrea Bergart (\u201908) has painted murals in the US and in Africa. Photo by Shanita Sims We\u2019re playing I Spy the Mural Cement Truck. There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}