Blue Sky Gallery

“Overflow Parking”

Mural
The Flint Journal Bldg.
Flint, Michigan
60' x 70'
Unveiled 1978

Blue Sky, on "Overflow Parking"
"After the People Magazine piece came out on 'Tunnelvision,' I was contacted to do the Flint, Michigan mural. They wanted a tunnel, but I wouldn't do it. They were disappointed -- it's human nature. That's a typical adventure in doing murals.

"I began looking at cars really hard. I knew it was going to be a car painting. I wanted to convey the beauty of the parking lot: the geometry, the lines, the cars glistening like jewels. If you were from another planet and you were flying over the city, the cars would look like jewels -- different colors, sparkling in the sun.

"The cars [in the mural] are the actual size of real cars. I added little mirrors on the chrome so that when you drive by, the sun hits them and they sparkle. I put disorder into it like skid marks, burnt rubber. There are actual tire tracks on the wall.

"As usual, the sketch I did for "Overflow" changed as I painted. When I get up on a wall everything has to be moved around to fit into the wall. If you look at the sketch and then the finished piece, you'll see that it doesn't look at all alike. So, no matter how detailed my sketch is, it seems like the final project always ends up being different. I see it as an amplification of the idea. It's usually better.

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“Overflow Parking”

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