Groups join to restore Chapel Hill murals

CHAPEL HILL -- It's 92 degrees outside, and Michael Brown reeks of bleach and sweat. For the last five hours, he has been scrubbing the grime off his 17-year-old mural, the 100-foot-long pencil on Henderson Street.

Brown is spending the week sprucing up the mural, located next to the Franklin Street post office and courthouse parking lot. The project is part of the Painted Walls Project, a new initiative to restore some of the town's two dozen murals. The project is co-sponsored by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership and the Town of Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission.

"It's nice that it's been woven into the fabric of the community," Brown, 53, said of the sharpened yellow pencil, which reads "IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD" in upside-down text.

"I'm happy to do it because Chapel Hill is my hometown," he said.

Jeffrey York, the new public arts administrator for the town of Chapel Hill, said the murals have been an important part of Chapel Hill's image.

"They're starting to get a little shabby-looking, but we're trying to take care of it," he said. "The interest in the project shows that people care about the image and aesthetic look of the community."

In late 2007, the three groups sponsoring the project began to raise awareness and money. The preservation society received an outpouring of supportive comments, which led to the the Painted Walls Project. It's still unclear which murals will be restored.

The preservation society's involvement shows how important the murals are to the community, York said.

"Murals have become part of the reason people come here," he said. "Chapel Hill has always been a leader and model of small communities, especially in how it thinks about incorporating art."

Brown, who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in art, has painted about 20 murals in the town. His first, the blue mural at Rosemary and Columbia Streets, was painted in 1989 and depicts a nighttime landscape.

The pencil on Henderson Street was painted in 1991. The reason for the upside-down lettering, Brown said, was both to avoid town sign regulations and to paint the pencil from the perspective of someone who's left-handed, to whom the text would appear upside-down.

He said he doesn't like to name his murals, preferring to leave that to others.

"It's for the community, and so, within a few months, people just sort of name it by osmosis," he said. "I can relinquish control, and I love that people can feel some ownership of it. That's what public art is all about."

Brown will repaint the pencil today through Friday, the day of the Painted Walls Project fundraiser. The public is invited to attend from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to watch Brown paint and meet York at P.T.'s Grille, which will donate part of Friday's sales to the project.