5 Artists Chosen to Create Main South Murals

WORCESTER, MA — Judges picked from a pool of 55 works by 35 artists to land on five to create murals in Main South as part of the "MakeArtEverywhere" campaign.

The artists will create five murals on the southwest side of the WCUW building at 910 Main St.

Art Professors Toby Sisson, Clark University; Catherine Wilcox-Titus, Worcester State College; and Tyler Vance, Assumption College selected applicants from the pool with the challenge of picking not only talented artists, but those who would create work that complemented the artwork that already exists on the building.

Their selections of Douglas Chapel's "Open Your Ears and Mind"; Andrei Kraytsou's "Tempo"; Angrei Krautsou's "Jazz Work"; Louis Hairapetian, "Untitled" and Ryan Gardell's "Boombox" will "create a synchronized composition with Dynamy's art that currently bows to the wall and also to WCUW's history and programming," said the city's announcement.

On behalf of WCUW 91.3 FM, Troy Tyree, executive director said in a statement, "WCUW is honored to be a collaborator in the 2016 Worcester Make Art Everywhere Mural Project. Main South is one of Worcester's more diverse neighborhoods; we look forward to doing our part by giving public art a place to live. The positive visual impact this project will bring to the Main South area is sure to act as a catalyst for other projects and developments up and down Main Street."

Doug Chapel, cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer, was chosen as one of the artists to complete the mural. Chapel, who uses the moniker "Action Geek" and publishes cartoons in Worcester Magazine and InCity Times, plans to document the whole process on his Instagram, Facebook and website.

"I was and still am very excited about having some of my artwork be a part of the growing collection of local outdoor art in Worcester," Chapel told Patch. "The plan for the mural is to methodically take the whole mural creation process step by step and work with my team to recreate my robot DJ illustration on the first mural spot on the WCUW building."

About the other artists:

• Andrei Krautsou, or "KEY DETAIL" is a muralist that has worked consistently towards developing his unique style since 2008. He studied architecture in Minsk, Belarus. Key Detail has recently been combining his love of travel and mural art by putting works up in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Greece, Poland, USA, Ukraine and Belarus. He took part at exhibitions in Germany and the US. His street work has been documented and featured in several urban art books.
• Louis Hairapetian graduated from the school of the Worcester Art Museum in 1969. He recently retired from Worcester Academy and is currently working part time at Worcester Historical Society. He has painted for most of his life and now has time to pursue art all the time.
• Ryan Gardell is a visual artist, mixed media painter and graphic designer. His creative approach toward art is to combine painting, stencils, collage, drawing and design into one artistic style. Currently, Ryan's focus is live painting and exhibiting at various music festivals and events both regionally and locally. He engages in many public art projects, murals, collaborations, workshops, studios and other art related endeavors. As a day job, Ryan works for an art gallery as a custom frame builder.

WCUW will hold a celebration of the completed murals on Saturday, May 21, as part of their WCUW Annual Meeting which commences at 6 p.m. followed by a concert featuring the Sarah Leveque Band.

Photo Credit: Doug Chapel