The wall on the side of CVS in Watertown Square has gotten a new look thanks to two local artists, but they have had to cover most of the cost of the project. A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help reimburse the husband and wife team from Watertown for their time and expenses.
The artists are Amir Tabatabaei and Niloufar Keyhani, who moved to the United States several years ago from Iran. Accomplished artists who worked on public art projects in their homeland, they got the opportunity to create a piece in their new home.
As the GoFundMe page, started by Watertown residents Elodia Thomas and Bruce Coltin, said:
“A thirty-year-old mural on the outside wall of CVS, in the alley officially known as Merchants Row, had faded beyond repair. The massive wall – 16 feet high and more than 130 feet long − called out for a fresh vision.”
“Amir spent many hours studying the wall and its relationship to Watertown Square before developing a design that would incorporate his personal artistic vision for the mural that he would name: I See a Dream.”
From design to completion the project took 120 days to complete, including about 60 days painting the mural. The artists had to rent an aerial lift to work on the highest points of the mural which cost $3,000. That used up most of the $3,200 grant they received from the Watertown Community Foundation.
“The cost of all of the paint and painting supplies came directly from Amir and Nilou’s personal savings,” according to the GoFundMe page.
The campaign seeks to raise $15,000 for Tabatabaei and Keyhani. See more information about the mural and the fund-raising campaign at the GoFundMe page.
This mural is beautiful, colorful and exotic. It makes me want to use this passageway, not avoid it. Thank you for sharing your special talents with us! I will be heading to the “gofundme” page to support the art you create!
Thank you for making Watertown a more beautiful place!
I have to be an honest critic. Not that I appreciate the effort and the work involved.
It does not bring me joy. The colors are limited and there are no animals or people.
It is a rather block-ish design and that feels limiting too.
I hope the funds can contribute to a redo of some kind.
I do appreciate the effort but I hope we can do better.
Peace.
Note that I appreciate the effort!
Enlivening a dead space … making it attractive and bringing a globalist perspective from talented young artists. Thank you, Bruce & Elodia, for organizing this fundraiser.
It is so nice that new people from other countries who move here want to give back and make a difference in their new home with such a beautiful public display of art. Their work in the extreme heat this summer is to be commended as is Amir’s goal to create art that represents “the connection and communication between places and imaginary cities through roads and bridges, symbolizing a unified, interconnected world”. Helping to support these efforts should be something we all want to do too.
I love the design and am happy to pitch in to help out our local artists.