{"id":32201,"date":"2014-07-29T11:36:44","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T15:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=32201"},"modified":"2022-09-26T10:57:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T14:57:41","slug":"painting-the-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/07\/29\/painting-the-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting the town"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Megan<\/a>

Wright State fine arts graduate Megan Smallwood spent nearly a year working with volunteers to paint a large colorful mural in an east Dayton neighborhood.<\/p><\/div>\n

The dimples. That was the toughest part. Getting the dimples filled in with paint.<\/p>\n

But for nearly the past year, Wright State University fine arts graduate Megan Smallwood has been doing just that. And now she and a group of volunteers have completed a colorful mural that has transformed a graffiti-scarred concrete retaining wall on Dayton\u2019s east side into a neighborhood landmark that is creating a greater sense of community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople feel very possessive about it,\u201d said Smallwood. \u201cIt\u2019s their wall now. They want to take care of it and see it last.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowning the top of a hill, the mural \u2014 which is nearly 60 yards long \u2014 is a rainbow of bright, sunny colors \u2014 greens, yellows and blues. It is a \u201ctimescape\u201d of Dayton, showing the city\u2019s past, present and future. There is a moon, a monorail and islands floating in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese floating islands are something that have always been in my head \u2014 the idea of land in dreamland,\u201d Smallwood said. \u201cThe mural portrays things about Dayton that are important and exciting and make people dream about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smallwood said her inspiration was to put something beautiful in place of a wall covered with hateful, nasty graffiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to give the community something they could be proud of,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they love it. People will be flying up the hill, suddenly hit the brakes, and say, \u2018Oh my gosh. That\u2019s so cool!\u2019 It\u2019s fun to see people react to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On this day, Smallwood \u2014 wearing a tie-dye T-shirt, straw hat, her hands black with paint \u2014 sits on an overturned plastic bucket and puts the final touches on the mural.<\/p>\n

\"Timescape<\/a>

Crowning the top of a hill, the bright 60-yard-long mural is a \u201ctimescape\u201d of Dayton, showing the city\u2019s past, present and future.<\/p><\/div>\n

The neighborhood is one of old frame houses, including majestic Victorians. Many have seen better days. Others are newly renovated. There is a hint of drugs and crime. But there is also the quiet strength of residents determined to give new life to the hood.<\/p>\n

Chuck Crawford, vice president of the neighborhood association, sees the mural as a way to bring the neighborhood together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenged neighborhood that has a lot of people and organizations working to revitalize it,\u201d said Crawford, who has lived there for 15 years following a 25-year career with the U.S. Postal Service. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely on the upswing. We\u2019ve got a lot of talented people giving of their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford himself spent many hours wielding a paintbrush, as did some of the neighborhood teens. He is confident and hopeful that the mural won\u2019t be defaced by graffiti.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the kids were doing the base coat, they got a sense of connectivity to it, that they were part of the project,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what helps protect your work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smallwood had to navigate the design, city approval and funding processes, doing it with the help of East End Community Services and the Dayton Graffiti Action Partnership.<\/p>\n

When she first began drawing on the wall in September 2013, neighbors called the police. When they realized what she was trying to do, they rallied around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about one wall; it\u2019s about everybody getting to know each other and talking to each other and helping each other, protecting each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smallwood added a \u201cfuture\u201d scene to the original design to get the residents to dream about possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a city about innovation. So many marvelous things have been invented here,\u201d she said. \u201cThat kind of history needs to live on. We have a lot of brilliant minds in Dayton, and I want to encourage that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painting continued off and on through a brutal winter, with the artists sometimes seeking cover in a makeshift shelter warmed by a small space heater.<\/p>\n

Smallwood used about 30 gallons of latex paint designed for concrete, purchased by East End via donations and grants from the city. She spent 150 hours of her own time on the mural \u2014 the equivalent of working nearly a week around the clock.<\/p>\n

The mural is the latest of similar works in Dayton. Murals have also been painted on Third Street and Fifth Street. Smallwood said she would like to see more artists tackle similar large public projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of intimidating to face something that big for a lot of people,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always dreamed big. I\u2019ve always wanted to see my work really large and share it with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smallwood grew up in Brown County east of Cincinnati. She was majoring in biology at Southern State Community College, but immediately decided to switch her major to art after taking a ceramics course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the doing something with your hands,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the process of creating something. When you make something, you put a lot of your soul into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smallwood came to Wright State in 2009 and got her bachelor\u2019s degree in fine arts with a concentration in sculpture in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were some professors who were just really special to me; we connected really well,\u201d she said. \u201cThey just made a huge effort to encourage me to do what I wanted to do and to take on challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her senior project, she produced a large swirling pink sculpture that was placed outside the library.<\/p>\n

Smallwood currently lives in Beavercreek, where she operates Decoy Art Studio. She gives art lessons to people of all ages, working with three other Wright State graduates.<\/p>\n

Smallwood said she hopes the mural changes how people think of their surroundings and inspires them to do more with their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people feel that Dayton is stagnant; I think that mentality is totally outdated,\u201d she said. \u201cThis mural is trying to give people a vision for the future, something to think about. I would like them to start dreaming about something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about Megan Smallwood\u2019s public art >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright State fine arts graduate Megan Smallwood spent nearly a year working with volunteers to paint a large colorful mural in an east Dayton neighborhood. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":32203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4299,2037,4859,725,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-profile","category-arts-scene","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32201"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129550,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32201\/revisions\/129550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}