Nature on the Eastern Shore — Murals
And in this area where there’s so much nature, it’s not surprising that there are public murals that celebrate the natural world of the Eastern Shore. (Photos by Jan Plotczyk and Gren Whitman.)
Salisbury – New Vision Heron
Artist – James Thatcher
Location – Route 50 side of the City Center Building, 213 W. Main St.
This four-paneled, stylized painting of Great Blue Herons is positioned so that all the traffic on Route 50 through Salisbury can see it. The current mural is a replacement for a heron mural done decades ago that had fallen into disrepair. The original mural, a single heron with beak pointed skyward, was painted as a tribute to the artist’s wife, who died of breast cancer. The new mural continues and expands the theme.
*****
Cambridge – Big Bird
Artist – Michael Rosato
Location – Water side of J.M. Clayton’s seafood, 108 Commerce St. (View from a boat or the Cambridge Creek drawbridge, or close up from J.M. Clayton’s.)
This giant hyper-realistic and dramatic mural catches a Great Blue Heron who has just snatched up a tasty blue crab lunch is a stunner. It’s also fitting that the mural is painted on the wall of J.M. Clayton packing company, the world’s oldest continuously operating crab house. The mural gives us a fish’s eye view into the shallow water frequented by the herons, with oysters, shad, and underwater grasses. The artist cites a passage in James Michener’s book, Chesapeake, as inspiration for the painting.
*****
Rock Hall – Bountiful Resources of the Chesapeake Bay
Artists – Wye River Upper School Art Teacher Katie Lillard, Language Teacher Karen Gilbert, and Public Art students, in consultation with Hagopian Arts muralists
Location – rear entrance of the Mainstay, 5753 Main St.
Winner of a design contest, this mural depicts a variety of native Chesapeake Bay species: Great Blue Heron and Osprey, striped bass, oysters and blue crab, and underwater grasses. The background features an ornate Victorian wallpaper design, which somehow suits this subject perfectly. The mural was painted on parachute cloth by students from the Wye River Upper School and Kent County Middle and High Schools, and then mounted on the Mainstay’s wall.
"For a time, I rest in the grace of the world and am free." —Wendell Berry
*****
Tilghman – Underwater Marine Life (Mosaic)
Artist – Nadine Sachs
Location – Tilghman Post Office, 5806 Tilghman Island Rd
Mosaic murals lend themselves to community involvement — for the image to take shape, there are plenty of jobs to be done. In the case of the Tilghman post office mosaic, more than 45 volunteers helped place and glue glass pieces, grout the gaps, and install the 52-foot-wide finished piece on the front of the building. Executed in a variety of blues and greens, the mosaic depicts an underwater abundance of sea creatures: crabs, fish, jellyfish, grasses, turtles, rays, oysters — almost everything that can be found in the local waters.
*****
Cambridge – Goose on the Caboose
Artist – Michael Rosato
Location – Powell Real Estate, 200 Trenton St.
The “canvas” for this mural is an ancient caboose. This true-to-life mural is an excellent example of trompe-l’oeil, French for “fool the eye” — an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion of a three-dimensional image. With a marsh in the background, the Canada Geese fly out of the caboose toward the viewer. The mural celebrates the Chesapeake Country Scenic Byway.
“Out beyond houses and mailboxes, roads and bridges, a person can see a realm
that exists alongside this world in which we humans live.” ―Janisse Ray
*****
Ocean City – Baby Sea Turtles (Utility Box)
Artist – Jessica L. Schlegel
Location – Philadelphia Ave. and S. Division St.
This cute painting of baby sea turtles hatching and finding their way to the ocean is part of an ambitious public art project that painted utility boxes all over Ocean City. From the dunes and sand to the sparkling ocean, this painting captures the natural beach aesthetic perfectly.
*****
Denton – From the Heron’s Eye (Mosaic)
Artist – Parran Collery
Location - 14 Third St (alley-side wall)
This river-themed mosaic is pieced together from bits of glass and tiles hand-crafted by the artist. It features the eponymous heron, crabs, fish, a gull, dragonflies, butterflies, frogs, songbirds, oysters, wildflowers, cattails, a starry night sky, and, of course, the river swirling around everything.
“We must remember that in the end nature does not belong to us, we belong to it.” ―Grey Owl
*****
Near Easton – Red-winged Blackbird and Green Heron
Artist – Hitnes (Italian street artist)
Location - Pickering Creek Audubon Center
There are two lovely murals at Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary. They were painted by the Italian street artist, Hitnes, who traveled in the U.S. in 2015. He was inspired by and traced the steps of ornithologist and painter John J. Audubon (1785-1851). Over a summer and fall, Hitnes painted murals of local birds at Audubon Sanctuaries across the south. The easiest mural to see at Pickering Creek is at the main parking area. Here, painted on an old hog barn, are big, bold, brassy Red-winged Blackbirds. The other Hitnes mural is on the back of the boathouse, depicting a Green Heron eyeing some tasty frogs. Accessible by foot or car, take the hike if you can; it’s a 20-minute walk from the parking lot, on a lovely path through woods along the creek or along a gravel access road. Or, drive the access road if you’re pressed for time.
*****
Read Part 1 (Sense of Place) and Part 2 (History).
Jan Plotczyk spent 25 years as a survey and education statistician with the federal government, at the Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. She retired to Rock Hall.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
