Jason Savio

Worcester is becoming a lot more colorful thanks to a growing group of mural artists in town. It’s now more and more common to see large, brightly colored works of public art on walls and buildings that were formerly void of any sort of pizazz or life. 

Last month, we talked to Ryan Gardell of Artifakt Studios, who is making his name known with large murals like the one he created in 2017 on Coney Island in conjunction with POW! WOW! Worcester. POW! WOW! Worcester, an arts festival that is part of a worldwide arts initiative network has continued to embrace local artists and has most recently enlisted the talents of Travis Duda and Eamon Gillen to beautify our area.

“There’s just something about public art that is really enchanting, the idea that we’re taking art out of museums and putting it on the street and making it really accessible to all people, that truly appeals to me,” says Duda, a graphic designer at Hunchback Graphics, a company he founded. Duda has also been a board member of POW! WOW! Worcester for three years, helping with the annual arts festival.

“I’ve been working with POW! WOW! Worcester and watching those artists for the past few years and they kind of shed some light on the whole way it’s done and took out the mystery,” says Duda. “It went from something that was kind of scary and intimidating to ‘Oh yeah, I can actually kind of do this.’”

Duda used his newfound confidence to step away from the computer and lend his skills to paint a mural on a building he and artist Grhimm set up together nearby a youth grow garden at 63 Oread Street, in conjunction with POW! WOW! Worcester and the Regional Environmental Council (REC), a grassroots food justice organization that works on “creating access to food for Worcester’s most food-insecure communities,” according to the group’s website. 

Duda and Grhimm decided to paint a picture of a young woman “whose hair creates a kind of negative space, which is also a duplicity for the garden with messaging that says ‘Keep it going, keep it growing,’” says Duda. 

“We drew up a proposal and came up with an idea to lift up the sprits of the people who already use the garden,” he says. “They’re doing such cool things over there with inner city kids using that space and learning how to grow vegetables and whatnot, so whatever messaging we put up there we wanted it to (be for them).”

For Duda, creating the mural at the youth grow garden was always in the cards, even if he didn’t know it. He previously practiced making smaller murals privately in his backyard, but the 40 ft. by 15 ft. one at 63 Oread Street is the biggest he’s worked on to date. 

“Typically, I’m behind the computer, so this was a nice way to switch up my skill set and work on a different part of my brain,” he says.

Across town at Coes Pond Beach you’ll see another display of public art in the form of a mural on a beach house/bathroom facility. Eamon Gillen, a tattoo artist at Crown of Thorns Tattoo, was tapped by POW! WOW! Worcester and Park Spirit, a volunteer-based group that focuses on sustaining and protecting public parks in the community. 

“(The) Coes Beach (mural) is kind of a take on the animals that you would see while you’re out exploring the trails, so there’s a fish, frog, turtle, beaver, birds, and also a mix of city and nature because the trail cuts through the city,” Gillen says about the mural. 

POW! WOW! Worcester contacted Gillen to create the mural to help frame and bring attention to new signage being put up in the area, he says. 

Gillen is no stranger to mural painting, having done work for Pixels and Pints Arcade Bar, Lincoln Street School, and other places around town. He’s also currently working on one for Beaver Brook Park that is a “faraway shot” that features Worcester landmarks. The Beaver Brook Park mural is located on a parks department building, according to Gillen.

“Tattooing is very particular, very specific, it has to be perfect whereas it’s nice to be a little bit looser with my side projects,” Gillen says about his murals. “(They are) more open, fun, bright, that kind of thing.”

Both Duda and Gillen have been met with a thumbs-up response for their work. 

“We’ve gotten nothing but positivity,” says Duda. “We went out there yesterday and did a celebratory cupcake share with some of the REC kids and organizers and they all seemed really pumped. It was cool to hang with them and see the kids using the space.”

“A good amount of people are taking pictures and saying positive stuff,” says Gillen.

Gillen makes sure to point to the importance of public art like his and Duda’s, especially in a COVID-19 world where going to an art museum may be out of the picture. 

Both artists hope to see more murals allowed to be put up around Worcester. 

“It’s free to the public, you can socially distance, and you can watch someone paint,” Gillen says.“That’s the idea,” adds Duda, “to keep growing young minds 

For more visit:

Travis Duda on Instagram: @hunchbacktravis

Eamon Gillen on Instagram: @eamontron

Grhimm Xavier on Instagram: @grhimmx