Newtown Mural Artist Toni Miraldi Upcycles Relic Payphone

Local mural artist Toni Miraldi, owner of Mural Envy, has announced her newest art exhibit, entitled Upcycle, on view at Danbury's Hancock Hall, now through August 18, 2017. A public reception will be held on Wednesday, August 2, from 3-5pm at Hancock Hall, 31 Staples St, Danbury. Light tea-time refreshments will be served.

As an artist and mural painter, Toni Miraldi’s paintings are typically large-scale. Her most recent work focuses on the concept of upcycling: taking a disused or discarded object and incorporating it into her work. The pieces in the Upcycle exhibit include elements of abandoned shipping crates, discontinued drapery fabric, leftover paint and most notably, an old payphone.

When presented with the opportunity to display her work in the long hallways of Hancock Hall, Miraldi saw a perfect chance to bring a new look to a well-traveled corridor. “Hancock Hall’s great expanses of wall meant that there was an opportunity to display larger works than I normally have the chance to produce. And the fact that one of the walls had a payphone--a relic in the age of cell phones--not only fit really well with the Upcycle theme, but also gave me the chance to design a creative mural around it.”

For the mural, Hancock Hall gave me Miraldi clear directions: Design a mural that will turn the old payphone from outdated eyesore into fun fixture. Says Miraldi, “I was thrilled to have the opportunity to execute such a challenge. Payphones are iconic in culture, even if they are rarely used for their original purpose, and there is an ongoing dialogue in cities around the world about how to best reuse, or upcycle, these objects. I like to think this mural is a contribution to that conversation."

As to the space itself, the hallway is a popular thoroughfare for residents and workers, but it has no windows to the outside. Miraldi saw the chance to bring a bit of the outdoors into the corridor, connecting an indoor space in an urban environment with the natural settings that are just a few miles away. The antiquity of the payphone also demanded a touch of nostalgia, “Which is why,” Miraldi says with a smile, “a call to nature will only cost you five cents.”

The Upcycle art exhibit was created for the Accessible Art Program, which is organized every year by the Cultural Alliance of Western CT. The program aims to make the work of regional visual artists accessible to new audiences by hosting exhibits in public venues all over the Greater Danbury area.

About Toni Miraldi: A resident of Sandy Hook, Miraldi has been painting custom murals in homes and businesses since 2006. Her company, Mural Envy, specializes in clean and open, uniquely modern designs. She is honored to be part of the Accessible Art Project. For more information, visit her website, muralenvy.com.