Eugene Sargent on Monday shows members of the Fayetteville A&P Commission a model of what a 3D mural will look like once painted on the downtown square.

Staff photo

A three-dimensional mural will soon be visible from the downtown Fayetteville square.

Local artists Octavio Logo and Eugene Sargent have teamed up for the project, set to be painted in the narrow alley west of the Arvest Bank building on the north side of the square.

The alley includes a side entrance to the bank, but also provides access to the Fenix art gallery. Logo and Sargent are both members of the Fenix cooperative, which houses the downtown gallery space and participates in various pop-up shows throughout the region.

The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission awarded $10,000 to the group to produce the artwork as part of Fenix’s “Our Universe” series. Hayden McIlroy, who owns the building where the mural will be painted, also pledged $10,000 for the project.

The A&P money comes from a re-appropriation of $15,000 in funds that were initially awarded to Bike NWA for production of this year’s Oz Cross cyclocross race at Centennial Park on Millsap Mountain. Since Bike NWA is no longer producing that event, the commission agreed to split those funds into three projects: $10,000 for the 3D mural; $2,500 for a mural at Gregory Park; and $2,500 to purchase a Hank Kaminsky sculpture that currently resides outside the Experience Fayetteville Visitors Center, but will be relocated inside the center once renovations to that building are complete.

Logo and Sargent, along with Fenix curator and organizer Jeanne Parham, met with the A&P Commission on Monday to detail the project.

The mural, they said, will feature a warrior named Athena whose sword and shield are traded for a paint brush and palette to signify the power of art.

The pair will use an artistic technique called anamorphosis to create the mural. During anamorphosis, an object is depicted in a distorted perspective requiring the viewer to take special action – such as looking at it from a specific angle – to see the intended image.

The artists said the long, narrow alleyway presents a perfect opportunity to employ the technique. Viewers inside the alleyway won’t be able to see the full image, but the image will become clear when looking into the alley from the sidewalk along the square.

“The actual mural will look really stretched out and strange,” said Sargent. “But the piece itself will jump out at you from the alley.”

The group said work on the mural would begin this month, and is expected to last six to eight weeks, weather permitting.

The mural will be painted in the narrow alley west of the Arvest Bank building on the north side of the square at the entrance to the Fenix art gallery.

Staff photo