Dates set!

I travelled to Raleigh yesterday to meet with the donors (Local Government Federal Credit Union) and the staff of the UNC's School of Government. We met to discuss various scenarios for unveiling the piece. It was decided that we would shoot for July 26. Why that date? It is the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. The actual lunch counter was turned into a Civil Rights Museum on February 1 of this year. Many recognize that date as the start of the sit-in but few know that the tactic was not deemed successful until 6 months later after much turmoil. We had initially planned to unveil the mural on February 1, but funding wasn't put in place in time so we had to decide on a later date and lo and behold, this one made itself known after some research. It actually works better for us on a couple fronts. Because the sit-in's were in Greensboro, the main focus was understandably centered there with the opening of the museum. Our little contribution would have been little more than a footnote on the events schedule. This way, we have a date unto ourselves and can extend the year long celebration. The date also fits better with the actual subject matter displayed in the painting which is based on the event but takes it in a slightly different direction and expands the theme to cover nearly 200 years of North Carolina history and the contributions made to it by more than just the Greensboro Four.

There was also further discussion on how to garner some media attention to the unveiling and whom to invite. I didn't know that Joseph McNeill (one of the Greensboro Four) lived in Wilmington, NC. The SOG plans on reaching out to him to see if he can attend the ceremony. I really hope he can attend as I would love to meet him. He is only one of three living people in the mural. They will also reach out to relatives of some of the subjects in the mural as well.

After the meeting I went to Chapel Hill to take a look at the space one more time and verify some measurements for the carpenter. We went over over the lighting plans and I decided on a final wall color which will be a dark shade of a purplish - brownish - plum color. I selected a color swatch and will put that in the mail to the SOG tomorrow. Below is a little Photoshop mock up with the selected color.

So that's about it. I have 3 months to complete this beast since I told them that I plan on having this painting hung over the July 4th holiday. Deadlines are a good thing for artists - without them we procrastinate! 


I took the day off today from painting. I felt a cold coming on starting on Sunday and tried to fight it off yesterday to no avail. I had a nasty cough and remembered that I still had a bottle of prescription cough medicine from my doctor. This was the good shit with codeine, not that flavored cough syrup crap off the shelf. Needless to say, the instructions called for a teaspoon every twelve hours but I took a NyQuil styled swig and found myself barely able to stand after a half hour. I spent the next 6 hours in a daze with my voice modulating in and out like a kid going through puberty. Thank God I wasn't driving. I'm going to take another hit (only a teaspoon this time) and shut down for the night. I hope the painting isn't pissed at me and I can get some work done tomorrow. In the past when I've left for two days there's been hell to pay.