'Sound of Flight,' on a business building in downtown Flagstaff, is described as the largest mural in Arizona.Listen:
By Laurel Morales, Fronteras Desk
Artists in Flagstaff will begin work soon on the second half of what they say will be Arizona’s largest mural, a 4,500 square-foot painting that has been in the works for two years.
Muralist and oil painter Sky Black, a Flagstaff native, has for several years wanted to paint what he called the ugliest wall in town – the east side of the historic Orpheum Theater.
The building owner and city were all for it.
Black just needed money and help. He found two artists who call themselves the Mural Mice – RE Wall and Maggie Dewar – and they got to work.
"What we’re calling this is large-scale fine art," Black said. "It’s all painted by hand brush and palette. There’s no spray paint at all. We’re doing this the classical way. Some are calling it the Sistine Chapel of Flagstaff."
Its real name is “Sound of Flight.” An enormous flock of birds appears to be flying from an ornate piano.
In the last two years, dozens of local businesses and hundreds of people have donated more than $30,000 to the project, and the artists said they hope for an additional $8,000 in a grant to allow them to finish the painting.
Black said public art has a way of bringing the community together.
"In a way, everyone who’s helped and lives in Flagstaff has an ownership of the wall of the mural itself," he said. "I tell everyone this whole mural belongs to you, so please take care of it."
The artists have dealt with winds, rainstorms and three-story tall scaffolding. Black said he and his team are unstoppable, and in the next few months they plan to celebrate the mural’s completion.
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