New City Mural Nearly Complete

By Christina Georgiou

Panels were hung Tuesday for the City of Easton's newest outdoor mural and the work is all but complete.

Adorning the west side of Hotel Lafayette, near The Lafayette Bar's entrance at 15 North Fourth St., the art was commissioned by the Easton Main Street Initiative and rendered by Freehand Murals.


Easton artist Kim Hogan works on the   

all-but-finished mural on North

Fourth Street Tuesday afternoon.

 The oversized art depicts silhouettes of jazz musicians, celebrating the city's musical past and is especially relevant to the bar, which has a rich history as a jazz lounge. The bar still regularly hosts performances by jazz artists from as far away as New York City, in addition to well-known local jazz musicians. 



Donna Thatcher, of Easton's College
Hill neighborhood puts finishing
touches on the mural she created with
the other three Freehand Mural
artists.

Seen later in the afternoon on Tuesday were Freehand artists Jenny Leggett, of Martin's Creek, Donna Thatcher, of Easton's College Hill neighborhood, Janet Hodick, of Palmer Township, and Kim Hogan, who recently moved to Wilson Borough. All were hard at work putting on the final finishing touches on their art, smoothing out and repainting screw holes necessary to the hanging process and preparing to give the work a final clear coat finish to ensure its longevity and resistance to the elements.

 

Despite the simple design, the mural has taken a lot of work to complete, the artists said.
 

Freehand Mural artists Jenny Legget  Janet Hodick work to
complete the new mural, to be formally presented
to the public on Thursday.

                                                                                                                 

"We thought we could bang this out in a weekend, but that turned out not to be the case. More like two or three," Hogan said as she worked. "And here we are again." 

Though the work is already in public view, a formal ceremony to "unveil" and highlight the mural is planned for the city's latest art piece on Thursday, June 21 at 1 p.m.

The public is invited to attend.