Video Montage

The Madison Courier's photographer, Ken Ritchie, compiled over the summer video footage of the mural in progress, and has now put it together into a montage! He did an interview with me, which is dubbed over top.

Go to www.madisoncourier.com, and scroll down a little til you see "Multimedia." The video is there, it's the first one: "The Muralist - Now on Video."

Smalltown Monthly magazine

As I was finishing the mural, I was approached by 2 men who were having lunch at Shipley's... they write for a magazine called Smalltown Monthly. They were so excited about the mural, and asked if they could do a story on me for their December issue. I went in and they bought me cheese fries and asked me questions all about my life, my art, and the project!

The magazine is based in Seymour IN, and is available all over this area, I think mostly in IN and KY, but it's sent all over the country to subscribers. It's a pretty interesting read - full of cute pet stories, redneck jokes, a Dr. Love article... and the whole back page is "reserved for Jesus." Pure Southern Indiana culture. I ended up getting a whole 2 page full-color spread!

You can read it online at this link:

http://smalltownmonthly.net/magazine.html

This will take you to the online version of the whole issue, and I'm on page 52!!

Finishing and Finished

The mural is done. Here are photos of the mural as it was being finished, and final documentation!

John Roberts Painting squad, filling in dark brown over the deadly satellite dish:

Motorcycle spectators marvel at their courage:

John and his team, and me, under the scene he sponsored (Lydia Middleton Elementary School):

After Chewbacca the Scissor Lift (my name for it because of its loud cries that echoed across the Ohio River Valley every time I asked it to move) was taken back to TNT, Peter let me use his cherrypicker ladder to finish the bottom sections!

Friend Robert came by every day during the last few weeks to keep me company by practicing his stand-up comedy routine on me, pick on me for all the paint I continued to drip and spill, and help me pack up at the end of the day:

Friends Joel and Ian, hangin out on the lift:

Excited to be mixing paint!

The finished product.... Shipley's had the front of their building repainted to match my palette, and since this photo, the Courier had the whole parking lot repaved!

The result of 2 years of talking; 1 year of intensive fundraising, designing, planning, and coordinating; 4 months of actual mural-painting:

"The West St. Mural at Shipley's Tavern, a Madison Landmark since 1867"

My signature emerging from behind the dish: "Artist, Tiffany M. Black, 2009"

On the Front Page Again....

Today I again made the front page of the Madison Courier! The Governor came to town yesterday, and as he came out of an interview at the Courier, he stopped by to see the mural and chat about it! He asked me how the project got started, and after I explained everything including the fundraising, he said, "Wow! So what's your name again?" I told him Tiffany Black and to call me if he ever wants a mural. Then today, there we were, old buddies in the headlines! Be sure to read the last couple of paragraphs....

10/15/2009 3:00:00 PM

The Madison Courier

Daniels hopes to position Indiana for quick recovery from recession
Peggy Vlerebome
Courier Staff Writer

THE GOVERNOR AND THE ARTIST: Gov. Mitch Daniels asks artist Tiffany Black about a mural she is painting on West Street. The mural depicts scenes of historic places in Jefferson County. The project got Daniels’ attention as he was leaving an interview at The Madison Courier. (Staff photos by Sara Denhart)
“The unemployment rate is unbelievably high. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see a quick recovery. I just don’t see the evidence of it.” - Gov. Mitch Daniels

Gov. Mitch Daniels thinks the recession will last longer than some analysts are predicting, but he wants Indiana poised to jump on recovery at its first sign.

"Our goal is, when the economy does finally come back, I want Indiana to come back a little earlier and come back stronger," Daniels said Wednesday at The Madison Courier during a stop on one of his frequent trips to a region of the state.

Part of that strategy is to not spend the state reserves. "Our reserves are our protections for the moment," he said. Another part of the strategy is to not raise taxes like other states are having to do, he said. That will make Indiana more attractive to business in comparison to states where taxes have been raised, he said.

Daniels recently received dismal economic news that less money is being collected from income taxes and sales taxes than had been projected before the state budget was approved.

"I think the state's relying as we do on the sales tax, we have got to expect that source to be down or flat for a while," he said. "People are cautious about their spending, and they are right to."

Although the most recent unemployment rate showed an improvement, Daniels has said he doubts it because of what he hears from people as he travels the state.

"The unemployment rate is unbelievably high," he said. "I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see a quick recovery. ...I just don't see the evidence of it."

If budget cuts have to be made, he said, education "would be the last resort," he said.

The budget has no bearing on whether this would be a good time for Indiana to pursue having more charter schools as alternatives to and in competition with traditional public education, he said.

"It's time for charter and other experimental schools, whether we are flush or broke," Daniels said.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, with the backing of President Barack Obama, is putting the squeeze on states. Duncan is doing this by telling the states to encourage charter schools and to measure which teachers are doing a good job, or become ineligible for money from a federal stimulus program called Race to the Top.

"I think they're to be commended for all that," Daniels said.

The message for students, he said, is "You're going to have to know a lot more than your parents did or our generation did. Results have got to get a lot better."

Indiana should "encourage more of our eligible sponsors to sponsor charter schools," he said. The city of Indianapolis under former Mayor Bart Peterson got several charter schools started, and Ball State University "has stepped forward" to sponsor 32 charter schools across the state.

"Our universities love to complain about students who show up who have to be remediated" in subjects such as English and math, Daniels said. "So here's a chance for them to try to mediate these."

As for school vouchers, "I don't think they are in our future at this point," Daniels said.

"I want to work on the broader competition and choice" that charter schools offer, he said.

The state might have inadvertently given parents school choice when property tax reform went into effect and the state took over 100 percent of school funding, he said.

"There's no longer a reason for schools to charge tuition," he said.

If parents like a school district better than the one where they live, or another district's schools are more convenient for them, they probably can transfer their children to whatever school they want without cost, he said.

Having students come in from outside to a school doesn't cost the school anything and would result in the school getting more state funds, which are based on attendance.

A potential downside is sports, he said. If Daniels is correct about the new choice option, athletes could play at the school of their choice.

Removing school district boundaries was not the intention when the state took over 100 percent funding of schools, he said. "I certainly didn't notice at the time." An emerging development in Indiana education is a grading system that would give schools letter grades from A to F. Other states such as Florida have started using letter grades, and they seem to be a motivation for improvement, Daniels said.

Based on test scores, "Florida was double-digits behind Indiana," he said. "Now they are double-digits ahead. We kind of stood still. They believe this (letter grades) was a big part of it."

The report card with letter grades "will definitely be based on the amount of improvement," he said.

"I agree with critics (that) No Child Left Behind measured absolute standards. Schools said, 'We can't control who shows up." Letter grades will reflect "how much a school helped a child improve" by measuring gains. "It will bring more openness and transparency and accountability," he said.

Daniels began his day in Sunman, then went to Aurora, Rising Sun and Vevay before coming to Madison, where he attended an event downtown in the evening before going to Charlestown, where he stayed overnight. Today he was to start the day early in New Albany.

In Rising Sun, he spent an hour with a class at the high school, where he said the students asked "some of the best questions" he has fielded as governor.

Daniels asked how the Courthouse restoration is coming along after a fire May 20 destroyed the roof and cupola. Told that the county is about to award a bid for the roof, Daniels said to relay to the architect something he uses in speeches.

"In ancient Rome, when they built these enormous arches, the architect was required to stand under the arch when they took the scaffold away," Daniels said. "That's my idea of accountability."

On another topic, Daniels said he had no news on a new Madison-Milton bridge as it is out of the state's hands with an application for a federal grant to pay for most of it. Told that Mayor Tim Armstrong was in Washington, D.C., to lobby for the grant, the governor said, "Excellent. Good for him. I hope the hunting is good."

He said the federal Department of Transportation "is happy with Indiana" because "We were the fastest state at deploying the stimulus money they sent." He attributed that to the state already having an approved and funded road and bridge building list made financially possible by leasing the Indiana Toll Road.

That meant Indiana had "shovel ready" projects ready to begin. "They were eager to show the money was out there and spent. I hope our good behavior pays off."

As Daniels left the Courier building, he saw the mural that artist Tiffany Black is painting on the vast south wall of Shipley's Tavern.

"Oh, my gosh," Daniels said when he saw the nearly finished mural, which has a large Ohio River scene in the middle surrounded by 18 paintings of places in Madison and Hanover.

Daniels said he is "the certified least artistic person living in Indiana .... I can't draw a circle with a compass."

He talked to Black for a while, and as he took a last look at her mural said, "That's fabulous" before going to his next stop.

Gettin' There!

Slowly but surely.....

The new plan is to finish the top half, and get rid of that expensive Lift!

Working on the Vignettes

Most recent photo of the mural... note the "sold" sign! I sold the last sponsorship spot! A couple weeks ago, I painted in orange "One more sponsor needed, your name here"... and there has been a lot of interest in it. A few days ago, I sold it to Todd Calvert, an electrician, and we worked out an exchange ... he's going to light the mural!! So it will be lit from the top at nighttime. So, in green I painted SOLD!

Leticia came to help one day! She helped me paint Lydia Middleton, the elementary school.

Parker Auditorium, of Hanover College:

Blocking in colors for the Broadway Fountain:

The next photos show progress of painting Clifty Falls:

The Courthouse (still a sketch), and Christ Episcopal Church:

So far, this is the highest brushstroke, all the way up to the chimney!

Going into the second month of work

Giving the trees a rest, I've starting adding banners to the frame, where descriptions will show who sponsored what historic scene.

In the bottom left corner, I've developed the vines quite a bit, but now I have to wait on more Quinacridone Purple and Alizarine Crimson paint before I can work on that more. (I love all the crazy names of the colors)

A letter was sent to me, in care of the Madison Courier, in response to the newspaper article... it's from Becky Skillman, the Lieutenant Governer of Indiana!

"Dear Tiffany, I saw recently in the Madison Courier the picture of the three-story mural that you are painting, and I personally wanted to congratulate you. What a beautiful way to enhance the city and what an experience for you! Again, congratulations, and thank you again for working so hard to depict the area's history."

The Week of Trees

I've spent the last couple days just on the leaves of this left-hand tree... still a few more layers to go to get the depth-perception and contrast I'm going for.

Madison Courier Article

7/18/2009 9:00:00 AM

A Brush With History

Young artist creates three-story mural

Peggy Vlerebome

Courier Staff Writer

HISTORIC SCENE: Artist Tiffany Black works on a three-story mural overlooking The Madison Courier’s parking lot on West Street. When complete, the mural will depict several events in the area’s history. Black, below, has a draft of the mural. (Staff photos by Ken Ritchie)

Push apart entwined vines in the woods to look at the Ohio River, and you might see a scene similar to what artist Tiffany Black envisioned. That is the vantage point she chose for her massive mural on the south outside wall of Shipley's Tavern, 322 West St.

She started with the framing to surround a scene of a packet boat on the river, the bluffs beyond and trees on the riverbank.

Black thinks of the framing as vines or perhaps roots, while some passers-by think it is a ribbon and others see it as a rope. Eighteen round openings in the vines will have pictures of historic icons that people are paying to sponsor. "I've tried to put my own little twist with the frame I've designed that symbolizes vines or roots intertwining and connecting these little bits and pieces of Madison's history," she said. "I guess it adds my modern perspective to Madison's history."

Black didn't just climb onto the lift the day after her 23rd birthday last month and start painting a picture. A lot of work went into the mural before she dipped the first brush into acrylic paint.

The mural had its genesis in 2007, when Shipley's owner Cris Sauer talked to former Hanover College professor Robyne Hart, who then was the director of Hanover's Center for Business Preparation, where Black was a student. He told Hart he wanted to find an artist to paint a mural on the side of his building.


Hart gave Black's contact information to Sauer.

Black agreed to do the mural, but first she had her graduation requirements to meet, including a three-month internship with muralist and gallery owner David Schuster in Louisville, Ky.

"He was doing a mural at Trinity High School," Black said. "I helped him with that every day. I organized his finances, redid his portfolio. He taught me how to run a small business, how to market myself as an artist. He taught painting classes in his studio, and I'd help with those."

She graduated with a major in studio art and a minor in French. "I decided to stay here because I really wanted to do this mural," she said during a break in painting. "The opportunity was just too good to pass up."

She rents a room from her art professor Leticia Bajuyo in Hanover and drives a car full of supplies to downtown Madison on days she is painting.

The West Street mural is Black's fourth mural including the one she helped with during her internship. She was chosen to paint a mural of trees in the Campus Center at Hanover College, and painted a mural at Lide White Boys & Girls Club. She also is doing a ceramic mosaic mural on the river side of the concrete wall at the judges stand on Vaughn Drive. Started as a Madison Bicentennial project, the mural was inspired by a Harlan Hubbard painting of a river scene. She works on it Monday afternoons, which are advertised as Mosaic Mondays when the public, both adults and children, are invited to help her.

For the West Street mural, Sauer wanted a river scene, so Black began getting ideas and doing research not only of local scenes but also "all kinds of research abut what I would have to do" to execute the mural.

And, she had to make a living and raise money for the mural. She joined Americorps, which placed her at the Lide White Boys & Girls Club, where she ran two after-school clubs during the school year. She still works there part-time. She was a substitute teacher for high school French. She worked at Whimsy for a while, and got a job waiting tables at joeyg's, where she only works now "when they really, really need me." She has applied for a grant from the Indiana Arts Council, and there was a fundraiser and drawing.


The mural now is mostly a full-time job. "I'm pretty much devoted to this," she said.

She took photographs of Madison scenes, but is relying largely on photographs at the Jefferson County Historical Society archives. "I want them to be as historically accurate as possible," Black said. "Ron Grimes (at the archives) has been a big help to me with the photographs."

To make a canvas, the nondescript plaster wall needed to be patched, and the people she hired gave her a good discount to help out. David Hearne at Kickin' Ash did the patching and John Roberts painted the wall white, using primer paint that Sherwin-Williams sold at a discount to help Black's project. TNT gave her a discount on a motorized lift.

Black painted a grid of squares to use as guides for turning her small sketch into a large painting on a building side that is three stories high and 80 feet long.

Four of the circles in the vine remain to be sponsored, three of them 3 to 4 feet in diameter and costing $600 each, and one that is 6 feet in diameter and costs $1,000 to sponsor. The four are on the side of the mural closer to West Street. Sponsors choose from a list that Black put together.

Among the icons not yet sponsored are the railroad incline, the Broadway Fountain and Eleutherian College, which Black wants to include because of its historic significance as a pre-Civil War institution open to blacks as well as whites, women as well as men, even though it is outside the city.

Scenes already sponsored include the Regatta, the Madison-Milton bridge, Clifty Falls, the Lanier Mansion, Lydia Middleton Elementary School, Hanging Rock Hill, Christ Episcopal Church and three scenes from Hanover College. The Regatta scene, which will be from the 1930s, was chosen by a child, Clayt Winters, whose name was on a raffle ticket that was drawn at a mural fundraiser. Black is pleased the Episcopal church will be depicted because her grandfather was an Episcopal bishop in Ohio. Hanover College "has been very supportive" of the mural, she said, with the college as a whole and the Rivers Institute among the sponsors.

The boat in the center of the mural was a real boat that worked on the Ohio River. Named the Revonah - that's Hanover spelled backward -it was a steamer whose owner and captain, Selby Turner, had his business on the river between East Street and St. Michael's Avenue.

His grandson, Dick Goodman of Madison, agreed to sponsor the middle of the mural, but asked that his maternal grandfather's boat be featured. It ran on the Ohio River in the early 1900s.

Goodman has a painting of the Revonah in his office at Madison Chemical Co. that was done by the late well-known artist and writer Harlan Hubbard, and he also has a photograph of the Revonah."I ended up going off a photograph rather than the Harlan Hubbard painting because I liked the composition better," Black said.

She hopes to complete the mural in the fall before the weather turns cold. When she is done with what she calls balancing it and with the scenes in the circles and the background for the rest of the building, she will call it finished. Paraphrasing a quote about art, she said, "An artist's work is never finished. He just chooses the time to abandon it."


>>Link to Madison Courier article


>>Other newspaper articles that mention the West Street Mural:
07/08 - Roundabout Madison "Mural Maiden"
09/08 - Roundabout Madison "Public Art Policy"

A Solid Month's Work, and The River Scene Nears Completion

Click on photos to enlarge -

Liz, Nate, and Brigid, hanging out in front of the mural.... Liz and Nate helped with the hill in the background:

Current photo of mural, with freshly painted front wall of Shipley's!

Mural with Peggy the Courier writer's car in front (she wrote the article about the mural!):

Mural Friends

Dad went 32 feet in the air! Isaac watched from the ground:

Isaac wanted to see how I mix the colors and paint the wall:

He got down all by himself:

Big Isaac came and helped!

So did Little Erin! That was her facial expression the whole time.... hesitant but happy:

Kay and Grace stopped by to say hello:

Joel and Andrew helped with the sky: