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Laura Shmania  > Southern Part of Heaven > Murals by Michael Brown
These murals have been painted by Michael Brown over the last 20 years. Weather, age, and the urban environment have taken their toll on these once colorful and vibrant murals. The Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, and the Chapel Hill Historical Society have launched a campaign to preserve them.

In this gallery the first photo will have the artist's statement and will show the whole mural: the photos that follow are more detailed. Click on each photo for a larger view. To read Michael Brown's description of his creative process, find the photos with "ARTIST'S STATEMENT " in the text. Michael's description is used in this gallery with permission from both Michael Brown and The Chapel Hill News.

I have arranged the photos in this gallery as a walking tour that revolves around two public parking lots- the one by 411 West Franklin Street and the one on the corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets. I hope you will take a stroll through town to see the murals!

These photos are copyright Laura Shmania-- all rights reserved. Please do not use these images without my written permission. Contact me at :: LShmania@mindspring.com
Gallery pages:  <  1  2  3  4  5  >  
Laura Shmania > Mansion 460
Mansion 460
Laura Shmania > Mansion 460
Mansion 460
Laura Shmania > ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Walt's Grill The geometric mural on Walt's Grill was painted in the mid '90s. We had been painting murals for a number of years, so I don't remember exactly what year it was. By then, though, I had a huge assortment of left over paints from previous projects. Just as every other year, I wanted to employ a different type of art and "borrow" from a different style and culture. I decided to use a folk art form not traditionally regarded very highly: quilting. This approach allowed me to create an abstraction (which I hadn't painted many of). It allowed me to make an (albeit mild) feminist point about art, (who is considered an artist, and why?). It also allowed me to be an ecologically responsible citizen and use all my leftover paint. I usually related to the students more like an orchestra conductor than an art teacher. I gave them lots of structure and expected them to "Do it my way." With this design the students could pick the colors they wanted, or mix colors if they felt like it. They could put them (more or less) wherever they chose. Everybody could feel confident about painting simple squares. Our method was very much like some traditional quilting projects! The volunteers had loads of fun, and I got to relax more than usual.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Walt's Grill The geometric mural on Walt's Grill ...
Laura Shmania > Walt's Grill
Walt's Grill
Laura Shmania > Walt's Grill
Walt's Grill
Laura Shmania > ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Goldie's Grill Public parking lot, corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets This mural depicts downtown pedestrians viewed from above. It creates the illusion that the viewer is looking down or that the pedestrians are walking up a wall. I was inspired by all the trouble and protest we had in town when N. C. N. B. first proposed this building. The idea of a 6 storey building on Franklin Street drove people right up the wall. Citizens even floated balloons to that height so folks could get a feel for how tall the building would be. It is of course on that building that the mural was painted in 1996. The head of the Downtown Commission, Robert Humphries, was having a hard time finding a building owner to lend us a wall for that spring. I try to make the murals site specific but since we had no site, I had no idea and no proposal sketch. Without those things Robert was having a hard time getting donations, too. The mural was supposed to be the centerpiece of a local arts festival and our deadlines were looming. He finally got a building, but only a week before the festival. With no time to spare Robert and I had to cut through a lot of red tape to get the mural started on time. The main benefit of such a mural, with it’s flexible composition, was that I could paint while Robert did fundraising, Every time he got a donation I added more people to the mural.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Goldie's Grill Public parking lot, corner of Rosem ...
Laura Shmania > Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Laura Shmania > Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Laura Shmania > Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Laura Shmania > Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Goldie's Grill, public parking lot
Laura Shmania > ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Public parking lot, corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets The first mural I painted in Chapel Hill was the blue mural, which can be seen from the corner of Rosemary and Columbia streets. It was painted in 1989. It was the brainchild of Phyllis Lotchin. Phyllis (with the help of the Downtown Commission) was creating a downtown arts festival to showcase work and performances by public school students. The idea appealed to me because I am a product of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system, and also because the idea was similar to our original intent in starting the Apple Chill Fair. I was hired for the project because I had some art experience, also because I had taught elementary and secondary art, so I was used to working with kids. I was used to working with volunteers, too (actors making their own sets off-off Broadway). Finally, I had run a small part-time house painting business while in college, so I knew how to work with large amounts of paint. With lots of input from the committee, I must have done 50 drawings for this mural. We were all eager for this first (and maybe only) one to be popular and not controversial. I hit on the final idea of a night scene when I remembered riding my bike up to work in the wee hours (as a dishwasher at Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe), How beautiful Franklin Street seemed when it was quiet and deserted in the moonlight! I chose the pointillist style because it was a rough brick wall. Also, I had so many volunteers that I was afraid I could not supervise them all adequately. I thought if they all had the same size brush and were all instructed to make the same size blue mark, it might unify their contributions into a coherent whole.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Public parking lot, corner of Rosemary and Columbi ...
Laura Shmania > Public parking lot, Rosemary and Columbia Streets
Public parking lot, Rosemary and Columbia Streets
Laura Shmania > public parking lot, Rosemary and Columbia Streets
public parking lot, Rosemary and Columbia Streets
Laura Shmania > ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Varsity Theatre alleyway, Franklin Street In 1999 the Varsity Theatre alley was becoming a problem area for downtown. Since pedestrians there are largely hidden from public view, it was an attractive place for young “Taggers” to paint graffiti and a lot of it was building up there. However, the taggers had almost always left my murals alone so we thought a mural in there might help. The location had some real problems though. There were many square feet to fill and, as usual, a tight budget. The student volunteers had to be given something they could execute at any skill level. The alley is narrow and the viewing distance minimal so standing between the opposing walls was extremely claustrophobic. I decided to paint blue sky on the walls. A sky painting would seem to open up the cramped space. Sky is easy and inexpensive to do, and the volunteers could easily paint clouds. When I realized that this plan would mean painting a Carolina blue and white mural I decided to change the plan and paint one of the walls (on the Durham side of the alley) a dark “Duke” blue. That would make that side into a night sky. With this the painting then became a sort of a Ying –Yang mural, containing Day and night, Carolina and Duke. In order to emphasize the concept of interrelatedness I painted an interlocking jigsaw puzzle piece pattern over the entire mural. I also liked the idea of pairing a normally small thing like a puzzle with a huge thing, like the sky. To further develop the idea I instructed my assistants to paint puzzle pieces on buildings all over town, like scattered random pieces that had not been fitted into the puzzle yet. To this day I’m not sure where they all are. I do know that from the most constricted location I ever worked came the largest project I ever did, covering the whole town.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT- Varsity Theatre alleyway, Franklin Street In 19 ...
Laura Shmania > Varsity Theatre alleyway
Varsity Theatre alleyway
Laura Shmania > Varsity Theatre alleyway
Varsity Theatre alleyway
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