Scott Murphy, Artist, standing in front of the new mural painted with Library Legacy funding from the Arrowhead Library System
Artist's work is one for the books by Lisa Baumann as printed in the June 11, 2011 Duluth News Tribune
A new pop of literary color has come to the library plaza in downtown Duluth. In the form of a giant bookshelf, Proctor artist Scott Murphy´s 23.5-foot tall "Books on the Plaza" mural was dedicated Friday by Duluth Mayor Don Ness. "The thing I love about it is that it features a number of local artists," Ness said of the book titles featured on the mural. "It´s part of our heritage and culture. It´s fantastic." Murphy said he was excited to work on a large-scale project again, having spent 17 years painting billboards. He came up with the idea to paint books on the central pillar on the plaza after the original idea to paint on one of the flat walls nearby wasn´t feasible. "That wall had moisture problems," Murphy said. "So we moved it to the rounded pillar, which was a really nice surface." The pillar outside the library located at 520 W. Superior St. now is adorned with the spines of 18 books. Titles range from Dr. Seuss´ "Green Eggs and Ham" to an organic gardening book by local author Ellen Sandbeck called "Eat More Dirt" to literary classic "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. The books depicted are clearly from a library, complete with Dewey Decimal System numbers used by libraries to classify books. Murphy said his main goal for the design was to make the book titles legible from a distance. Up close, Murphy wanted the mural to look "brushy" and obvious that it was hand- painted. "There´s so much machine-made stuff in the world," he said.
"I think it´s comforting to see something made by a person." The project took Murphy about five weeks to complete starting in May. He used about nine gallons of paint and several coats of UV protectant. Besides working in some inclement weather, selecting the books proved to be the biggest challenge for all involved, according to Nancy Eaton, a community services representative for the library. Library staff, Murphy and members of the public had a say in the titles. They chose books that showed the range of the library´s collections, books with local significance and books that had interesting spines. Murphy had final say if he didn´t think a book would work and on the order of the books. Funding came in the form of a $12,000 grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. This money was made available when Minnesota voters approved a three-eighths-of-a-percent sales tax increase in 2008 to support environmental programs, parks, the arts and cultural heritage initiatives. No city money was spent on the painting. State Rep. Mary Murphy of Hermantown, who serves on the Legacy Funding committee that decides how to spend the sales tax money, said she wanted to make sure some of the funds went to libraries. "Libraries are the centers and heart of communities," she said. "We want to encourage the use of this plaza and this will help," Ness added. Libraries in Babbitt and Calumet also received the same amount of funding and are using it to create public art at their sites.