By Werner Trieschmann
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Friday, August 20, 2004
While making a break for freedom after a recent Alltel Arena concert, we were surprised to find some murals painted on a stretch of white walls at North Little Rock’s Riverfront Park.
Well, we weren’t totally surprised as we had heard about how the active Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative organization had a ceremony unveiling the murals. We had intended to seek them out and instead just stumbled on them by accident.
Our feeling about public, outdoor art is that unless you have unlimited resources and/or a striking location for your work, it’s pretty hard for the art to compete with the surroundings. Christo can wrap bridges and government buildings but everybody else has a tougher go of it.
The Riverfront Park murals, which occupy a small section of the outside wall near the intersection of Riverfront Drive and Poplar Street, have only the Arkansas River, the Little Rock skyline and the striking bridges to compete for a viewer’s attention.
Still, we’re happy these colorful slabs of concrete are here. They draw your eye toward the park and away from the development, the hotels and parking lots, on the other side of the street. Sure, they only take up a small portion of the white wall. Yes, some of the ideas are starved for inspiration, but the effort is a reminder that young artists and the art they create can’t be stilled.
One mural panel names the artists involved, but we could only find one painter, Gabriel, who signed his work. Gabriel has a long section of wall devoted to muscular, active musicians. The other subjects are an interesting mix of quasi-abstracts and more realistic portraits. We like the big roses — one yellow and one white — best of all. They just seem to stand out and even give the skyline a run for its money. Off the Wall, the occasional art column, is always happy for directions to better art. Send them to:
werner trieschmann@adg.ardemgaz.com
