Drop by Drop : Traveling Artists Brighten Indiana with Murals

Five years ago, an artist residency conducted through Indiana University of Pennsylvania painted a series of murals on the wall of the Indiana Theater.

This week, another residency is underway, as The Spruce Art Residency program will be hosting muralists from the organization Dripped On The Road as the latest artists in residence.

And the Indiana Theater is one of the downtown places that will be graced again by artistry, along with the Jimmy Stewart Museum and a wall behind Fox’s Pizza Den off Philadelphia Street and Gompers Avenue.

Murals are going up around Indiana, as well as behind the Indiana Theater.

“It’s an art residency program that gives artists a chance to escape from the everyday life and come and create in this community,” said Hannah Harley of Spruce Arts Residency.

Riisa Boogie, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Sarah Rutherford, of Rochester, N.Y.; Damien Mitchell, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Evan Lovett, of Philadelphia, are scheduled to be in Indiana through Oct. 19.

“The residency has been running for about four years,” said Ramiro Davaro-Comas. “We have been doing this kind of program since 2016. We have painted over 100 murals, traveled over 14,000 miles and basically painted up and down the entire East Coast, in all of the states.”

Harley said the artists will paint murals with air-purifying paint that absorbs aerial pollutants, reduces carbon dioxide and eliminates odors.

Additionally, as part of their effort to aid the environment, Dripped On The Road plants 100 trees.

“We believe in not only public art but the responsibility that public artists have in maintaining a healthy ecological environment,” Davaro-Comas said, as the artists will plant the trees at Ben Franklin Elementary School.

“A lot of partners are working to make sure they are the right kind of trees,” Harley said. “There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of people involved.”

They include Smog Armor, the Indiana Conservation District, Indiana County Office of Planning and Development, Sustainable Indiana and the Evergreen Conservancy.

Davaro-Comas started talking with Harley about an Indiana residency in April.

“I myself came out in March and did a site visit, was here for a week in the residency program, and painted a mural inside the Horace Mann Elementary School,” Davaro-Comas said. “I was able to meet many of the stakeholders in town, and I was truly able to get a really great experience in Indiana, and I personally loved the town.”

All four artists bring a variety of experiences to Indiana. Lovett, for instance, is using his father, a blue-collar worker in a number of fields over the years, as a model for the coal miner shown alongside a canary in the mural that is going up behind the Indiana Theater.

“I went to school for hospitality and tourism management at the University of Massachusetts and I personally have been painting public art for about 10 years,” Davaro-Comas said. “Because we travel and we bring artists to different communities, it is pretty much in the nature of what I studied to do these programs. As a program we believe that there is an invaluable power in public art … and we make sure we bring artists who can really make this town proud of what we have painted.”

In turn, Dripped On The Road is the latest troupe to visit under the auspices of Spruce Art.

“The first six months we hosted 25 artists from all over the world,” Harley said, “looking to escape the city and find the joys of a small town American lifestyle while creating art.” Additionally, a film crew is with the Dripped On The Road artists, shooting a continuing documentary about the work. Documentary videographer Owley (he goes by a single name) is working with directors Denton Burrows and Jonathan Neville.

It would be the latest episode in a five-season Web series that so far has had a total of 18 episodes.

“We paint these murals and then we go home,” Davaro-Comas said. “The murals are left for the community. It is free art and no one has to pay an entrance fee as in a museum. You can come here and you can enjoy the art for free.”

More about the project can be found at www.drippedontheroad.com.