Restored: St. Luke's 1913 "Good Shepherd" mural by E. H. Blashfield

In this tradition 100 years is the blink of an eye.

Atlanta's St. Luke's Episcopal Church has restored "The Good Shepherd," a giant canvas by E. H. Blashfield, the artist who did the domed ceiling of the main reading room of the Library of Congress. Before they took the scaffolds down, St. Luke's invited parishioners to see it up close and up high from the scaffolding. Thanks to Bobby Mays who invited Trip Cook and me for a once in a lifetime experience.

It's a canvas "pasted" to the wall. I loved that the restoration of this hundred year old mural and 2014 Living Walls Conference were happening at the same time.

 
Restoration by IFACS International Fine Art Conservation Studios. They worked 12-hour days for two weeks. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


As you walk into the sanctuary, The Good Shepherd seems ancient in muted colors. It's the calm focal point above the alter amid the glorious windows. My photo from an earlier visit.

How big is it? How high. Perhaps twice life size? I forget to ask. In my reverie I forgot to ask everything.


I'm not a high scaffolding person. Nope. But I was going up. My photo.


Mental note: Identify your assistants. My photo.


Cleaning revealed that the Good Shepherd's feet are in foam at the water's edge. My photo.


Distorted at eye level, but right when viewed from below. My photo.


From the scaffold I felt as if I was in the mural but separate and small. It was in my face. How does the artist manage the distorted up-close view?. Artists figured this out a few thousand years ago, mastered it in the Renaissance. It's an ancient tradition. My photo.


Up here the scaffolding rocked, like being on a floating dock in the waves. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.

How long to stay up there? My brain and body were floating. I felt a claustrophobia of being so close to the giant painting. The working lights were good for the artists, but glared through my cataracts.

But I could turn around.


To see this. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


The cleaning uncovered more sheep. My photo.


Doves. My photo.


Angels galore. My photo


Angel in a frock. My photo.

 
My photo.


The angels in the arches aren't quite so finely rendered. My photo.


What is she holding? My photo.

By now I was lost in the experience, running out of time, knowing this was my one time up there.


Pardon the poor focus. My photo.


Who modeled these angels? Do they appear just the same in other murals? My photo.

I need to catch my breath before I show you a few more details.


Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.


The restoration includes relighting from below. It will be seen as never before.


The whole flock. My photo.


I couldn't stay long enough. As simple and as straightforward as it is, there's no way of "getting it." My picture.

Climbing down was like stepping off the dock onto solid ground.


What a room. Photo by Tripp TLF Photography.

I understand that after the lighting is complete the restorers will return to discuss the mural and the restoration. I hope to go.

Thanks Bobby, Tripp and St. Lukes.

P.S. The 2014 Living Walls mural most in this tradition is by Spanish artist Borondo.


Borondo's #lw2014 mural faces west on Jesse Hill between Edgewood and Auburn. It faces the John Lewis mural. It's just 8 blocks south of St. Lukes'

A Wedding and a Movie in one of Atlanta's Great Spaces

Is there a more comfortable outdoor gathering place in Atlanta? A more comfortable indoor space? When  events end, folks linger.

It looks like a rock quarry but when you fill it with people...

 
Folks gather for the Living Walls Movie Night on August 14, 2014. It's the amphitheater on the retention pond of Historic Fourth Ward Park.


My first visit was for Erin and Craig Kennedy's wedding on June 9, 2012.


You can bring a chair, sit on the wall, on the grass, on a blanket. There's plenty of space to move around and hug your friends.T-shirts are perfect, white suits and summer dresses too.


As you approach, you can see in, see the whole place, see everybody. Once inside you can see folks approach. It has a definite, comprehensible shape. It feels safe, small enough so that you can identify a distant face. There's a sense of enclosure. The curved benches are walls that make small "convex" spaces, places for groups to congregate with a view out into the larger space. It's a people watching paradise.


This is rocket science design for human comfort, comfort that helps shy folks be sociable. The really shy folks can watch from the balconies.


And who doesn't love a wedding.

I didn't return for a couple of years and I confess: I forget how great this place is. Thanks Living Walls!


There's a grassy "lobby" big enough for Food Trucks and Italian Ice Carts.


The stairway and the dogs are truly grand. But there are ramps for elders like me.


The clearly defined spaces feel informal and flexible. There's breathing room. It's hard to feel rushed in here. Where else can you bike to the front row?


By the time the movie started there must have been 250+ folks there.




The movie finished about 10 and the first wave of folks left.


The second wave wasn't in any hurry. The experienced picnickers packed up their baskets.


The third wave lingered and lollygagged.


The fourth wave chatted in cozy clumps. For all I know they stayed until the park closed.


Trust me on this: This is one of Atlanta's great spaces.

The Churches on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard

That's so Atlanta: At Northside Drive it changes names to Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard. I'd prefer Boone-Allen Boulevard, kind of like Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Until 2008 it was Simpson Road - so Atlanta

I've been watching three Living Walls murals on up at 1211 Joseph E. Boone. See the map below. They are where Troy Street T-bones JE Boone, just west of the BeltLine and east of Proctor Creek.

My first time through I took pictures of the churches, the physical landmarks and social bulwarks of the neighborhoods. This is Vine City and English Avenue, places folks like me go when we think things are going well.


I love these small churches in re-purposed buildings most of all.

Where's Joseph E. Boone Boulevard?


Who was Joesph E. Boone?

"Rev. Joseph Everhart Boone (September 19, 1922 – July 15, 2006) was a civil rights activist and organizer who marched together with Martin Luther King Jr. He was a key organizer of the Atlanta Movement, which led to the integration of lunch counters and department stores in Atlanta, during the early 1960s. He worked with King, Ralph David Abernathy, John Lewis and Andrew Young, but never was recognized to the same degree they were. King named Boone as the chief negotiator of Operation Breadbasket, a program that encouraged businesses that sold to African-Americans, to employ and promote African Americans. Boone led a team of more than 200 ministers in more than 30 cities for Operation Breadbasket."  Wiki.



















That's just a few of them. It's a start. Go see.


Here are the murals, they should be finished by now.