The Story Behind the Armory Mural We Did Last Year

Mark Nicklawski, Michael Shannon, Zane Bale, Mark Poirier
Members of the Duluth Dylan Fest Committee
Photo credit: Michael Anderson -- Click to enlarge

Last summer -- and it feels like a decade ago -- Mark Poirier asked me if I'd be interested in doing a mural on a section of Duluth's Historic Armory. Mark is the Armory director who runs the office and manages the building at this point in time. His motive, in part, was to show the public that there were things happening here. For two decades all the renovations have been taking place inside, so it still looked like an abandoned building to many.

Every mural starts with a blank slate.
This one is 17 ft wide & 13 ft tall.

I expressed interest but wasn't sure I'd have time. When August began to slip past I realized that we'd better get on the ball or it would be winter soon. With the blessing of the Armory Board I proceeded to reach out to a group of local painters to see if they might be interested in contributing to the concept I'd conceived.

For those unaware, the Duluth Armory is where young Bobby Zimmerman saw Buddy Holly a few days before Holly died in an Iowa cornfield in Clear Lake, Iowa -- along with the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and their pilot.

Although many of us were drawn together through the Duluth Dylan Fest and Bob Dylan Way, it was agreed that the theme should be something broader than a tribute to Bob Dylan. 

Because the Armory's history is full of stories, one concept that emerged was to capture and share some of those stories. While I was painting images on the larger wall, a dozen artists worked out different themes to accompany and embellish it. For this reason we see Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Buddy Holly, Sonny & Cher and John Philip Sousa in some of the pictures here. Some of the artists created more abstract impressions.

The wider theme included the manner in which the Armory and its surroundings has been a source of inspiration. One painting, for example, is a tribute to the Anishinaabe peoples who lived on these shores before it became a U.S. territory and later Minnesota.

Each of the artists who contributed was given an 18" x 18" panel which had been precut and primed for painting. One panel (right) lists the artists names in the order that their pieces appear from top to bottom. (Missing from this image are the names of Lulu and Tubbs, who were added when their pieces were delivered later. You can see their paintings to the right of Buddy Holly in the upper left.)

Some of the symbols in the larger mural itself are worth noting. Most of them are related to Bob Dylan, even if he is not a central feature of the painting. Sing Your Song was the title of a documentary on Harry Belafonte that many Duluthians saw at a Duluth Superior Film Festival several years ago. I chose this because when young Bob Dylan arrived in New York City, Wood Guthrie was his idol but his ambition was to be "as big as Harry Belafonte."

As it turns out, young Dylan's first paid recording gig was to play harmonica on a Harry Belafonte album. Though he was lined up to play on three songs, he only recorded one. You can see a photo of the harmonica he played and read the details of that story in Peter McKenzie's Bob Dylan: On a Couch & Fifty Cents a Day.

In the center of the mural is Robert Johnson, who famously made a pact with the devil "down at the crossroads" in Clarksdale, Mississippi at the intersection of Highway 49 and Highway 61, the Blues Highway... which runs North all the way up past the Historic Duluth Armory. To Johnson's right you can see the Highway 61 road sign. (The Clarksdale location is disputed by some who say it took place in Rosedale.) 

In the lower right is a funkified Bob Dylan profile that I created. 

Funkified young Bob Dylan in profile.

Here are a few of the other images displayed.

Johnny Cash by Kris Nelson

Contribution by Twin Cities graphic designer Lulu

Virginia Alexander's Duluth Symphony

Mark Poirier, masked but not anonymous, affixes Tubbs' piece next to Lulu's

Along the left side you can see (top to bottom) Buddy Holly by Ed Newman, Sue Rauschenfels' Anishinaabe-themed piece, Linda Glisson's expression depicting the energy of a concert atmosphere, and Edna Stromquist's John Philip Sousa. Molly Overden's Lighthouse and Seed is just below that .

On the right side of the mural one can see Christie Eliason's Louis Armstrong at the top followed by Virginia Alexander's Duluth Symphony,  Kris Nelson's Johnny Cash, Margie Helstrom's Blues Inspiration and Rosemary Guttormsson's Sonny & Cher.

Here's the current status of the mural. 

If you look close, on the right side it says:

TO BE CONTINUED.

Trivia: When I was in college I did an 8' x 12' painting which I 

continuously worked on and reconfigured or 3 to 5 hours a day. 

It had a life of its own, or so I theorized. I enjoy working large,

as many painters do. This is the objective I have in mind here,

to keep it alive until the time that it must depart. Which means

I need to continue working on it sometime and breathe more 

life into it. In the meantime...

THANK YOU TO ALL THE ARTISTS WHO HELPED

BRING THIS PROJECT TO LIFE. 

And to the Armory folks who gave us this space to decorate.

Armory Mural On Hold... But Coming Along

This summer Mark Poirier of the Armory Arts & Music Center asked if I would be interested in doing a mural on the Historic Armory. It would be something to show passersby that something is happening, keep a little buzz going with regards to the renovation. 

As one who believes in public art and have written frequently about it, I decided to yield to Mark's periodic encouragement to consider it. It's a 17 foot wide by 13 foot high space. What would you paint if this was your project?

I conceived a concept and presented the idea. With a few modifications it was a go and we proceeded. 

The concept for the mural was Inspiration. I reached out to an informal group of local artists and pitched my idea, and an invitation to participate. I wrote:

My idea for this mural would be to have a dozen 18’x 18” panels distributed to artists who would paint something in keeping with the theme to be detailed below. This is an exterior wall. The panels will be screwed to the large wall as shown below.

THEME: INSPIRATION FROM THE ARMORY AND ITS SURROUNDINGS

In other words, you may create something based on one of the multitude of performers and celebrities who been guests of the Armory from Harry Truman to Johnny Cash, Will Rogers to Bob Hope. OR you may get the inspiration for your painting from the beautiful lake, the Rose Garden, Leif Erickson Park or whatever moves you.

My aim was to give maximum freedom and let the creative juices flow. 

My original ideas evolved for the central portion. And during the winter it will evolve some more, I suspect. At first, I envisioned a ten foot portrait of Dylan, who found early inspiration from seeing Buddy Holly here a few days before his untimely death. This evolved to a smaller Dylan portrait in the lower right and a man holding a torch in the center, which then evolved to placing Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist, singer/songwriter who proved so influential in the Deep South, a recognized master of the Delta Blues style that influenced so many of the musicians that rocked the world in the 60s. You can read more about Robert Johnson and his influence here.

Bob Dylan's album Highway 61 Revisited is a tribute to the famed Blues Highway, which runs up the center of the country from there to here, to the front door of the Historic Duluth Armory. 

Sing Your Song is the title of a 2011 documentary about Harry Belafonte which many of us saw at the DuSu Films Festival a number of years ago. Belafonte was more than an entertainer. He was also a Civil Rights activist. His connection to the mural is this. When Bob Dylan left Minnesota for the Big City, he was famously brought into the Columbia family of recording artists by John Hammond, who signed many other famous artists including Billy Holiday. (Some called Dylan "Hammond's Folly" when his first album seemed not to find an audience.) Belafonte was recording his album The Midnight Special and Dylan was hired to play harmonica on the title track, one of Dylan's first "official" recordings in New York.

* * * 

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Sue Rauschenfes, Linda Glisson, Edna Stromquist, Molly Overden, Christie Eliason, Virginia Alexander, Kris Nelson, Margie Helstrom, Rosemarie Guttormsson, Lulu and Tubbs. And myself. 

Related Links

A Visit to the Buddy Holly Crash Site

Historic Duluth Armory

The Role Played by the Armory During the Spanish Flu 

Highway 61 Revisited was the title for John Bushey's Dylan-themed radio show that ran for more than 26 years on KUMD. Miriam Hanson is the current host of this valuable program. 

Belafonte Film Reminds Us to Not Give Up the Fight

Last night we went to see the opening night feature Sing Your Song, a documentary about the career of Harry Belafonte, produced by his daughter Gina who was also present for an informative Q&A session afterwards. Now wouldn't it be great if after every time you saw an interesting film you could have the producer or screenwriter or director there to interrogate. That's one feature of film festivals you just don't experience every day.

Till last night I never realized how central of a player Belafonte was in the civil right movement. Like Sydney Poitier, Belafonte was a high profile black in Hollywood who experienced first hand the unequal treatment people of color had to endure. Both became seriously involved in the fight for rights in the racially charged south, putting their lives at risk simply to be there.

But for Belafonte it didn't end in the South. He visited Africa and allowed the sea of sorrows there wash over his unshielded heart. We talk about death with dignity in this country, but there is no dignity in starvation and he allowed himself to witness this over and over again so that he would not forget, so that he would speak and take action against the injustices that contributed to this suffering.

He also became friends with South Africa, and specifically with Nelson Mandela, whose life was likewise dedicated to non-violence and the elimination of injustice.

I'm writing as if you all know who he was. He fought in a black unit during World War II then became a singer, which brought him into theater and ultimately Hollywood, films and TV. Everyone knows at least some of his songs. For example, try Day-O, the calypso song that was featured in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.

As a great films must be, at its heart is a great story. And in its aftermath there was much to think about. Many of the things we experienced ourselves in our youth we did not understand, in part because we did not know the truth behind the news stories we were fed. Films like this continue to shed light and help us process our own experiences.

Thank you to the film festival staff for the 17 films that will premiere this week and all their efforts to create a significant event for the arts community. This one premiered at Sundance and will be on HBO this coming October.Tonight I'll be checking out the juried Short Films at Zinema followed by The Agony & Ecstasy of Phil Spector. Can't wait.