Artist: Charles Freeman
Project Title: The Beauty of Birds
Location: Memorial Drive at Liberty St.
Project Statement: Birds are one of nature’s most magnificent creatures. Their colorful feathers and distinctive sounds are capable of producing in humans a myriad of emotions. Birds play an important role in nature as well in that they are instrumental in the fertilization of the earth’s greenery. I find much inspiration in birds and believe others do, too. I enjoy watching them from my window. I find them to be a symbol of freedom and care-free living. To paint a traffic box with images of these creatures in flight and nesting will bring a colorful lightness to the busy intersection of Liberty Street at Memorial Drive between the Muncie Public Library Maring-Hunt Branch and the Muncie Mission Complex. The intersection lacks color and I want to change that by transforming the existing traffic box from its drab gray color to a delightful scene of nesting Cardinals and a blue bird in flight. It is sure to capture the attention of motorists and pedestrians who pass through the area to get to school, to work, the post office or to the Maring Hunt Library.
Artist Bio: I am a self-taught artist with 45 years of public art experience. My specialty is mural painting and I have contributed many to the landscapes of Los Angeles, California and Carlsbad, New Mexico. In Carlsbad, New Mexico my first commission was to create a mural for the Eddy County DWI program. The mural was completed in 2010 followed by the Carlsbad Caverns Commemorative stamp mural, the La Tenda Supermarket caverns mural, and the Trinity Hotel and Restaurant vineyard mural to mention a few. Between 2010 and 2016 I painted approximately 12 murals for the city of Carlsbad, local businesses, national park service and private residences. As a co-founder of the Carlsbad Mural Project I was instrumental in site identification and mentoring young artists in the art of mural painting. One of last public art project was to paint desert scenes on the traffic box outside the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.
In August 2015, I restored one of my best known murals “Return to the Light.” Originally executed in 1994, the mural looms above the Pasadena Freeway and is seen daily by thousands of commuters. Return to the Light is a 20 foot mural painted on the exterior wall of a senior residential complex at Carlota Boulevard and Avenue 41 in Highland Park. Other LA murals are located on exterior walls of local schools and cultural centers in South Central Los Angeles. I am recipient of several awards from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2011, I was commissioned to create a mural commemorating the 40-year legacy of Sheenway School and Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California. I created the original Sheenway mural in the 1970s and served as an art instructor.
I enjoy portrait painting. Over the years I have produced oil paintings of family, friends and luminaries, such as Marvin Gaye, Quincy Jones, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These works were presented to the individuals. In the case of the Dr. King portrait, it was commissioned by an Asian restaurateur in South Central for the dining room. The portrait was admired by his customers so much so that the painting came up missing within a few weeks. I produced prints of the Malcom X portrait, the original is owned by a close friend. In 2006, I was commissioned to paint portraits of historical African American leaders Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass by the Wilder Preparatory Academy of Inglewood California. From 2005 to 2009 I lived in Atlanta, Georgia and was commissioned to paint a series of paintings illustrating pre-colonial Africa culture. These paintings are a permanent collection at the Omenala Afrocentric Cultural Center and Museum.
Shortly After restoring a mural in Los Angeles I suffered a stroke that has let me paralyzed on my right side. It was my dominate side; however, I have learned to write and paint with my left hand. I have produced artwork with my left hand and look forward to participating and sharing my artwork through the traffic box public art competition.