It starts with the simplest of questions. What if?
Four friends chatting at their normal Sunday afternoon coffee spot. Gazing across the street at the same huge, empty wall on the side of the building they see every Sunday. But this time wondering – what if that wall was filled with color and imagery and something inspirational? Why not a mural?
It’s the kind of idea that’s fun to talk about, and that usually ends as quickly as it began. It’s too easy to list all the reasons why it won’t or can’t work. But not this day…not for these guys.
Jeff Cooper reached out to the building owner Albert Vera, Jr., who jumped in to help fund the effort. Dan O’Brien scoured the internet for the right artist to make it work, cyber-landing in Australia where Fintan Magee’s eye-popping work caught his attention. Culver City’s own Tower Insurance stepped up to provide insurance.
So Magee was coming to America, and photographer Holly Port came on board to document every brushstroke and create a video record of the adventure.
Simultaneously, Culver City High School Principal Dylan Farris had been asking – what if we bring in professional quality, living art to fill the barren walls of our school campus? And what if we inspire more of our students to think about, value and create art? Together with Kristine Hatanaka, Creative Director of the school’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA) Art Program, he’s been working to make that happen.
So when O’Brien told them that Magee was open to adding a high school component to the project, CCHS, the PTA and the AVPA Foundation kicked in additional funding. Now, Magee would paint a second mural, adorning a wall passed by most high school students every day. He would mentor AVPA art students and speak at a class. One student would create her own mural, another would assist the artist.
That’s what happens when a simple “what if” transforms into the power of the possible.
The son of two artists, Fintan Magee has been asking “what if” for a long time.
What if we could make art an integral, visible part of everyday life? What if communities around the world embraced public art to enhance the urban environment?
What if five gallons of paint could stimulate conversation and make people notice an intersection they sleepwalk past every day?
Along the way he’s created more than 200 murals on five continents, earning an international reputation for his large, bold, character-based, adventurous, sometimes whimsical pieces.
Freshly arrived in Culver City, Magee stares at that giant empty wall. He doesn’t have to ask anymore. He knows what’s possible: that in a matter of days that wall will be awash with vibrant images and colors soaring 20 feet high and 60 feet across, delivering a compelling narrative. Seeing the interested onlookers, he knows that he’s already inspiring conversations.
Down the street from the newly completed mural, Magee speaks to a large class of budding artists at the high school. Engaging them and recounting his artistic journey with respect and humor, he says, in effect, “here’s what happens if you dare to dream and find ways to tell your stories.” And he works side-by-side with CCHS senior Amy Wong, who’s bringing her own vision boldly to life on another school wall.
Soon three new murals will jump off Culver City walls – evocative public art that, two weeks ago, existed only in the imagination. Hundreds will see them every day. Who else will be inspired to ask “what if”?