Correction: This article has been revised to correct an error that misstated the location of the Blue Mural. It is at the corner of Columbia and Rosemary streets.
The summer before he started at UNC, artist Michael Brown went to Ye Olde Waffle Shop at 5 a.m. to work as a dishwasher.
This journey through Chapel Hill by moonlight inspired his first mural 20 years ago.
The Blue Mural, sometimes called “Starry Night,” captures the iconic image of the moon above Franklin Street.
And now the painting, at the corner of Columbia and Rosemary streets, is getting a facelift.
After Brown created the mural, one of his former art professors offered critiques.
“I’m putting it back as it was — but taking a bit of his advice,” he said of the work.
A group of local children helped him with the project when it was first created.
“It had all been drawn up, so I had a gang of 20 kids putting dots on the wall,” Brown said.
The mural has a speckled style because Brown said he thought it was the easiest way to work with a group of people.
“Everybody, and I mean everybody, can make a dot,” he said.
The Painted Walls Project, an effort of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Chapel Hill Historical Society and the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission, raises money to restore murals around town.
Through past fundraisers, including an auction of some of Brown’s original sketches, the project has gained enough funds to restore some of the 17 scenes.
Ernie Dollar, director of the Chapel Hill Preservation Society, said the groups determine which murals should be restored first by looking at which are the most threatened or in need of restoration.
While some are decades old, the football player painting on Pantana Bob’s was created in 2003.
Dollar said the group got involved with mural preservation because they are an important part of town culture.
“We looked at these and saw the murals really represent Chapel Hill: its color, its diversity,” he said.
When the group was first determining if they should preserve the artwork, they asked community members for input and had an overwhelming response.
“We got the most emotional, heartfelt e-mails I’ve ever read,” Dollar said.
One woman said a figure painted on a Rosemary Street wall reminded her of her deceased father, and another writer said her daughter always greeted the turtle mural on her way to school.
“That gave us the fire and the fuel to go forward and try to restore as many as we can,” Dollar said.
The murals are important to Chapel Hill because they have become a part of its identity, said Meg McGurk, assistant director of the Downtown Partnership.
“They have been around for 20 years now and just about everyone that you talk to has a favorite,” she said.
McGurk said The Blue Mural is her favorite.
“There’s a lot about it that just screams downtown Chapel Hill, and I love it,” she said. “I’m very glad we’ve been able to maintain and restore it.”
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
