High on the west wall of the Albany Chamber of Commerce, muralist Eileen Hinckle was at work Sunday morning.
The two-story wall across Washington Street from the Albany Carousel is no longer going to be drab or blank.
Eileen Hinckle, the artist who has painted lots of other murals including at least three in Albany, is adding a lot of color to the west wall of the Albany Chamber of Commerce building at First Avenue and Washington Street. (For a July 7 update, see below.)
The chamber of commerce commissioned Hinckle to do this art project, her dad told me. He is Peter Hinckle, and he was acting as his daughter’s assistant on Sunday morning.
The artist herself was high up on the wall in the bucket of a boom lift, making it hard to talk to her. Her dad, on a ladder, was closer.
The bewildering pattern of white markings they were putting on the wall will serve as kind of a template for the mural, as I understand it.
There are to be four images representing different Albany scenes. Watching the creation take shape should make for an interesting downtown diversion in the weeks to come.
Hinckle is based in Corvallis, where she returned after painting murals in places as far away as Latin America and Spain. In Albany, she has painted large colorful images on a building in the 700 block of Southeast Second Avenue and on the Reptopia pet store on Pacific, as well as a graphic on the building of Albany FISH,
To learn more about the artist, check her website here.
And keep an eye on her current canvas as she makes images emerge on that wall. (hh)
The story has been edited to correct the name of the pet store where the artist painted one of her murals.
Peter Hinckle, on the ladder, is Eileen’s assistant and her dad.
By Friday, July 7, the mural had progressed to this point.
Looking forward to more of her amazing art. Thanks for letting us know.
Looks awesome. Please post up the finished mural when she’s done.
How many nights until it’s covered in graffiti? I give it two weeks.
Why is it that when the Chamber of Commerce is paying, what MS Hinckle is doing is called art, but when unpaid, non-Chamber creatives do the same, it is called graffiti?
Likely one of two reasons. 1. Paid work is considered “professional” and thus preferred to “amateur” work 2. Presumably the city is paying for the work to be done in a location of their choosing and not in a location they are not choosing.
And I suppose the important part either way is whether the property owner wants the “art” or not.
Your comments border on lunacy! Do you just like attention?
I look forward to your attention.
Because one may incur a fine and/or jail sentence amongst the artistic merit.
I was excited for this and then I saw the photo. I was hoping for something like the one that is across from Cool’s on 2nd. Now THAT one is a mural (and I love it!!). I’ll have to see how this one looks when she’s finished. Right now, to me, it just looks like graffiti.
The artist probably knows what she is doing. Let her finish before taking exception to her professionalism.
I was somewhat excited to read there is an “Ectopia pet store” that i had previosly not heard of. After websearching for it, i surmise that’s a typo and the reference was instead for Reptopia which has a lovely painting of a chameleon on the wall. I’ll keep hoping for a locally owned pet store for the bear necessities of life.
Thanks for pointing out that embarrassing error, which I’ve now fixed.