All Over Albany

Checking out the new mural in downtown Albany that was just finished

We got a chance to stop in downtown Albany Thursday and see local artist Liz Zunon putting the final touches on her new mural along the wall for the Clinton Ave off ramp near the Quackenbush Garage.

The new work -- "Geraldine's Reverie" -- is the latest in a series of Capital Walls murals, a collaboration between the Albany Parking Authority, Albany Center Gallery, and Albany Barn. One of those earlier works -- the bluebirds mural by Michael Conlin on the side of the parking garage -- is more or less above the spot of the new work. (There's a sidewalk off Broadway that will take you right by it.)

Zunon is an accomplished children's book illustrator. And we got a chance to talk with her for a few minutes Thursday about what it was like to create something on a much larger scale.

Also: A handful of photos of the new mural.

Photos

Look up. They're at the top in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.

Talking with Liz Zunon

So what was your inspiration for this work?

Inspiration for this work was the arts and entertainment, music, theater, dance, and the freedom that we feel when we're young children to express ourselves in different ways. And just the overall freedom of expression that the arts and entertainment bring to our lives.

What was it like as an artist to work on something this big and expansive?

It was very daunting. (laugh) I was lucky that I had a lot of help from Tony [Iadicicco] from the Albany Center Gallery, who has done this before. And he's worked with different artists and he's worked with these kinds of paints and operated the lift and stuff like that.

But it was great to see figures that I had originally initially sketched into my sketchbook brought life size and bigger, on to a public platform. That was awesome.

Yeah, because it seems like a lot of your work is at a very intimate scale -- a book is usually read on a lap. And this is something they're reading from much farther back.

Yeah. It's like a book come to life. It's not a determined story or a plot but it's supposed to inspire everyone that sees it. Hopefully they'll connect with an element or a character in a different way.

How do you know when it's done?

It's done when you're comfortable walking away and you don't stress over it at night when you're trying to go to sleep. (laugh) I think I'm finally at that point now.

This is the fourth or fifth Capital Walls mural. As an artist how does it make you feel to see these works starting to take over this part of town?

It makes me feel proud that Albany is investing in arts and culture and, especially, funding things like this. There's a lot of talented people everywhere in the world and they don't always have the funds to be able to do works like this on a large scale. You know, paint is expensive, insurance is expensive, and your time is worth money. And it's great that people in Albany are able to see that and invest in us artists here.
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Liz Zunon has two children's book featuring her illustrations set to be published next year. She wrote the first -- Grandpa Cacao -- which is inspired by her time growing up in Ivory Coast. And the other is I Am Farmer, written by Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul.

The Albany Parking Authority advertises on AOA.

Earlier:
+ Talking with Albany artist Elizabeth Zunon about illustrating a legend, drawing on her family's history, and stoking her creativity
+ Here's how those three new murals in downtown Albany turned out
+ Gawking at the newly finished mural on the Quackenbush Garage in downtown Albany
+ Flocking to downtown