Local TV News does story on the murals

Helena history murals 

on downtown walking mall

By Ryan Whalen 

For several months now, local artist Lance Foster 
has been using his spare time to put up a series 
of murals in the downtown walking mall.

Foster was selected by the city to do the project two years 
ago. It's now nearing completion. Foster is focusing on 
what he remembers of the area as a child – namely the 
Chinatown area of downtown Helena and Big Dorothy's 
rooms, a long-closed bordello.

He says it's his way of celebrating all parts of Helena 
history, even if they were fringe elements of society in 
their time.

"It's part of who we are and as it says on the mural of 
Dorothy, any town that doesn't recognize its colorful side 
is a boring town to live in,” says Foster.

The murals are painted on entranceways in an alley off 
of the walking mall. The door frames allowed Foster a little 
fun – you can have your picture taken as if you're on 
Dorothy's bed or in a Chinese take-out box.

Story by Ryan Whalen, Beartooth NBC. Copyright ©2011
Beartooth Communications Company. All Rights Reserved.

Painting the Mural: "Sometimes I Feel Like Chinese Takeout"

Start of Chinese Take-out Mural, painted the week of Sept. 16. Still to go: finishing the wire handle, the red characters on the carton, the title, and some touches of color here and there.

The wall completed. "Sometimes I feel like Chinese takeout" is a reference to this location being the hotspot for fantastic Chinese food for decades in Helena until Urban Renewal tore down the restaurants in the early 1970s. But also you can stand in the opening and -really- feel like you are Chinese takeout, and get your photo taken there to prove it!

Painting the Mural: Memory Wall

Behind the Dragon Wall, I painted the Memory Wall. I do not have the sequence on this one, as the photographer was away at that time and my camera was out of commission. It was begun Aug. 18 and completed Sept. 15. School began Aug. 29 and from then on I could only paint three mornings a week, so it took more time than otherwise it would have.

Helena once had a thriving Chinese community (aka Helena Chinatown) which reached from where the library is now, over to Reeder's Alley and up to the Chinese gardens at the split to Unionville and Grizzly Gulch. There were hundreds of Chinese that worked and lived here between 1865 through the 1890s, but they began to leave over the later decades until by the 1950s there were only a fraction of what there were previously. Abuse and racism took their toll. There had been Chinese physicians and herbalists, restaurants, stores, groceries, hotels, laundries, gaming houses. By the 1970s, there were pretty much only three descendant families left in Helena, to all accounts.

The completed Memory Wall. 
The art style is influenced by the Ashcan School of urban New York during the early 1900s and Muriel Wolle's paintings of the mining camps in Montana... I wanted it to be intimate, familiar, gritty, industrial. Wong See Q. was a leader in the Helena Chinese community.

List of historical sites in Helena with Chinese heritage.
These are the ones remembered by the descendant families still connected to Helena. There were once hundreds of Chinese and their businesses, most now lost to memory.

Helena in Chinese characters. 
Written Chinese is not alphabetic, each character represents an idea or word, but can also represent a syllable. Each of these three characters represents one of the three syllables in Helena, although it is pronounced differently in different Chinese languages, such as Cantonese (the Chinese language spoken by the great majority of Helena's Chinese population historically) and Mandarin (a northern language used as the common language by most in modern China).

Painting the Mural: Dragon Gate: Week 2

I continued painting the Dragon Gate during week 2.

Mon., Aug. 22: I began painting the large fields of color. Dark green for the head and the mountainscape (South Hills and Mount Helena). Pale green for the body and mane. Yellow-orange for the whiskers, claws, eyebrows, spine, and tail tuft on the dragon, and the Pearl of Wisdom/Sun. A longer day than usual, but felt good about getting the dragon's primary colors on. 5 hours.

Tues., Aug. 23: Used a sort of gray-purple-black to outline the head, eyes, teeth/mouth, talons, and the rest of the dragon. Really makes it "pop out" at last. Added another coat of reddish-brown to fill in some spaces and thin areas. 4 hours.

Now comes a critical point in painting, as in all paintings. Deciding when it is done. Not doing enough means it looks unfinished to viewers...and is incompletely realized and unsatisfactory to the artist. BUT...You can also go too far and add too much and ruin a painting that way too. So the next day or two, and I have to be careful. I know I want to add to the clouds (cream gold with pink scrolling), and also add scales on the dragon. The scales are tricky, with so many to do, and they need to look uniform.

Wed., Aug. 24: Today, the scales. Trying to paint so many uniformly-sized things has a lot of potential for things to go wrong. So I cut a guide out of an old plastic lid. It worked pretty well, although it was slow and took a long time. I added some green lines along the back and limbs which popped it out further. I added a creamy yellow-white over parts of the cool white areas which warmed up the clouds and picked out the teeth and eyes. 5 hours.

Thurs., Aug. 25: Finished the pearl/sun, talons/wrinkles, clouds, touch-up various places (drips, streaks). Picked up varnish from paint store. 4 hours.

Fri., Aug. 26: Signed and dated the mural. Final Clearcoat Sealant; applied two coats, with 2 hours drying time in between them. 5 hours, with 3 of those actual working hours, and 2 drying hours.

FINISHED with the Dragon Gate, mural #1 of the series! Next will be the Chinese Memory Wall, to be started next week.

Painting the Mural: Dragon Gate: Week 1

I started on the mural a little over a week ago. This is the progress so far.

Fri., Aug. 12: Powerwashed the three gates (I keep wanting to say "arches" but they are not arches, just a series of gated supports along a walkway). Allowed to dry fully over the weekend. The site attracts a lot of grafitti, which will be an ongoing issue I suspect. 1 hour.

Mon., Aug. 15: Got supplies from Columbia, along with arranging for barriers and tape, etc. Had to go with supervisor as she has to sign off on every order personally (city process). 1 hour. Scaffold brought on site by city.

Tues., Aug. 16: Applied Loxon conditioner today as a sealer and primer using a roller on the surfaces to be painted, front and back of first gate. It is a clear coating, which means you can paint right over it. Certain colors will cover it satisfactorily, like white and the reddish background. For brighter colors I will need to apply white primer in those areas first. Ordered some more paint and do some further design tinkering at home this afternoon. There is a difference between paper/digital stuff and the REAL physical environment :-) 2 hours.

Wed., Aug. 17: Blocked in most of background, a reddish color like red clay. Some white applied in areas of clouds and part of dragon. 4 hours.

Thurs., Aug. 18: Draw dragon, all freehand directly in paint (magenta). I had to change the pose a little from the original design because of the discontinuity in the concrete wall at the top which would distort it otherwise. I had originally thought of gridding it, but I like the freshness and vitality of a freehand line. Got the dragon, pearl (used 5-gallon lid as template), mountains, clouds (with swirls) drawn in now on the dragon gate. 5 hours.

Fri., Aug. 19: Some minor vandalism wiped off and I repainted over it. Whited-in areas of dragon and pearl, in preparation for next week's color application. It looks pretty good so far! This is all taking longer than I thought. 4 hours.

(Thanks to Carol Montgomery of the Helena Public Art Committee for the photos!)

Next week: More colors

St. Louis Block Mural Proposal in Helena: "Palimpsest"

I have decided to try and do some public art projects, starting with a proposal for a public art project here in Helena at the Boston Block downtown. It's my first attempt at such a proposal. The project requires a one million dollar insurance policy for some reason, which I don't have (not being a big professional design firm) nor do I currently have the money for, being a local starving artist ;-)...but if I were selected, I would have money for the policy! :-) Anyways, I thought it would be worth a try, and I am posting my idea and images here so you can see what my idea is.

“Palimpsest.” St. Louis Block Public Art Project Proposal
Lance M. Foster, Aug. 2009

[Note, Oct. 11, 2011: The building is not the Boston Block, which is south one building, but the St. Louis Block, named for the St. Louis Hotel which was connected at the rear of the building when it was first built.]



1. Letter of interest. The letter is limited to one page in length and should explain the artist’s interest in the project.

I am sure you have many outstanding and excellent proposals from professional teams and experienced muralists to sort through and select from. As a lifelong Helenan and kid who learned how to do art in Helena's schools, I am only happy to have been allowed to submit my own ideas for the project. I remember very well downtown Helena just before, and then during, Urban Renewal. I remember going to see “Fantasia” at the Marlow Theater and eating fried shrimp from Yat-Son’s Chinese Restaurant. When I was 6, we were trying to find a new place to live, and Mom called “Dorothy’s Rooms,” on the chance it had rooms for rent. Dorothy herself answered the phone, replying “Oh honey, this isn’t the kind of place you want to have your family live.” Places are palimpsests, layers of time and sometimes only a fragment remaining to show what was there originally. But there is nothing left of either the Marlow or Yat-Son’s, and while Dorothy’s and the House of Wong still stand as buildings, their functions have changed and many do not even know of their former iconic status. The erasing of former history, especially those groups considered “less desirable,” in this case the Chinese and the prostitutes, was a value embedded in Urban Renewal. My interest in the project is very much a part of my personal history and memory of Helena and the importance of remembering EVERYTHING.

2. Current resume. If submitted as a team, a current resume should be submitted for each team member.

Adjunct professor, Fine Arts, UM-Helena College of Technology
Graduate, University of Montana and Iowa State University
Artist-In-Residence, Lewis and Clark County Historical Society

3. Project description accompanied by visual representation (drawings, maquette, photographs, and/or computer presentation, materials list and timeline.

Materials list given in 4b below. Timeline: Initiate project on announcement of selection (August 2009), completion in one month’s time, end of September 2009.

IMAGES FOLLOWING:




Arch 1, west surface (Ceramic; Chinese characters for “Helena”)




Arch 1, east surface (Dorothy’s Rooms)




Arch 2, west surface (Chinese takeout carton)




Arch 2, east surface (Feng Shui gate)




Arch 3, west surface (Urban Renewal)


4. Materials and installation: Describe the anticipated materials and installation process. Include information that will help facilitate the artistic integrity of your work:

a. Describe your design concept.

Site-specific to within a stone’s throw of the site- even more site specific than “Helena” or “downtown.” In my project, I propose to restore a part of the palimpsest of community memory, symbolized by the Chinese and Dorothy’s Rooms. The interaction of the Chinese and Brothels in Helena, and their image in popular culture: urban renewal, Chinese feng shui gate as a guardian to the inner world of the Chinese and redlight communities, Chinese takeout carton as both popular stereotype and community memory (House of Wong across street and Yat Son next door), the infamous round bed and article about Big Dorothy—all behind a façade of dragon and phoenix representing Yin and Yang, matching the color scheme of the immediate environs. The casual observer sees only what the community wants to be seen. The arched doorways symbolize entrance into the past through stereotyped images: the Chinese takeout carton, ceramic vessel (dragon and phoenix), and feng shui gate, in the case of Helena’s Chinese population, and the famous round bed and newspaper clipping, in the case of Dorothy’s Rooms. The huge missing sections of images represent the fact that though we think we know the facts, the truth, we never really do, not unless we ourselves were part of the hidden community ourselves. We believe we enter the past, but there is always the greater part the remains unknown. The iconic image of the garage and car during Urban Renewal reminds us of that process that still reverberates to today.


b. Describe the materials to be used in your project.

Acrylic paints

c. Describe the installation process.

Grid on arches
Transfer designs within grid, use of step ladders
Paint

d. Describe any special equipment needed and maintenance required.

Ladders, rollers
Maintenance: Annual spraying/washing off salts from paint surfaces

5. Preliminary budget (typed, one page maximum): Include a cost estimate for all facets, including but not limited to artist fees, insurance, travel expenses, materials and supplies costs, fabrication and installation costs.

COST ESTIMATE
Materials and supplies - $3000 ($1000 of materials donated by artist)
Insurance - $200
Travel – Helena resident

6. Up to five images of previous work (slides or jpeg files on CD-ROM), accompanied by a descriptive list.

IMAGE 1: “The Guardian.” Acrylic on canvas. Many cultures believe that powerful, even frightening, images of angels and deities serve as protectors and guardians of holy places. On one side, there is an approaching summer thunderstorm (protection of the sacred) with the eagle, and on the other is the night sky of winter (purification).
[Media: Acrylic on canvas]

IMAGE 2: "Ishjinki Vincent Itaro Waduje wok’un ke (Trickster gave his friend Vincent an ear of corn)." Acrylic on canvas. In western society, the artist is thought of as a marginal figure, and in the worst cases, prone to eccentricity and even madness. In traditional societies, the artist is an integral part of social life, expressing the inherent values of the society. The Trickster is an ambivalent figure, but one of the good things that he does is cure madness. In this painting, we see what might have happened if the quintessential “mad artist” Vincent Van Gogh would have had the friendship of Trickster. After Vincent cuts off his own ear, Trickster offers him the replacement ear…of corn. And a happy and healed Vincent teases him back, with the rabbit ear sign behind his head and tsk-tsking him for the joke. And in the background, the crows of madness fly away to the sunflower/sun under the framework of the world.

IMAGE 3: “Tilth.” Media: Wood and panel board; metal toy; acrylic. Tilth is the structure of the soil, seen in the stratigraphy of the earth beneath our feet, like layers of a cake. We start reading from the oldest layer, which is buried deepest, at the bottom, and then work our way up. In this example, the oldest layer is "Nuxe" (NOO-khay: ice), laid down by the glaciers, and then "Ni" (NEE: water, the melting glaciers and erosion), then "Maya" (MAH-yah: the earth built up by the sunlight and decay of plants). Finally, the last layer includes the bodies of those ancestors, "Washige s’age" (WAH-shee-gay S-AH-gay) who have gone before. On top, as we grow our crops and make our city, do we remember the tilth of the soil, made by ages and the bodies of those who have gone on before us? The toy tractor emphasizes how transient and small we are in the scheme of things.


7. Proof of liability insurance ($1,000,000).

Forthcoming if selected

8. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with accurate postage to ensure return of your application materials or make other arrangements to have your proposal returned to you.

Will pick them up after selection process is over.

9. Optional. Include up to three selections of support materials such as reviews, news articles, catalogues and other related information.

Article from Helena Independent Record

CONTACT INFO:

Lance M. Foster
320 E. Broadway #4
Helena, Montana 59601
406-422-5911
lancemfoster@yahoo.com