Rain update: Due to the inclement weather the Aug. 15 ribbon-cutting will move up to 30 Hanover St. under the Opera Block Apartments arch, still 2 p.m.
MANCHESTER, NH – It’s near impossible to catch an unobstructed view of the colorful new mural on Hanover Street, what with trees and parked cars. But if you could, you might detect the familiar curves of Mt. Uncanoonuc within the geometric rainbow.
And even if you don’t quite see it within the bold letters spelling out “Greetings from Manchester,” that’s OK; artist James Chase knows it’s there. The mural reflects his coming of age as an artist in the city that raised him.
“Home is a place I carry,” says Chase, sliding the sleeve of his T-shirt up enough to reveal a river tattoo.
He says he’s had his eye on the blank canvas that was the grungy-looking exterior of the parking garage between Hanover and Manchester streets for a while. So when Gerry Dupont of Red Oak Properties decided to do something to spruce up the street where she and husband Ron also manage many of the existing buildings, including a residential renovation project underway and the grungy parking garage wall, fate delivered the coveted job to Chase.
“In our opinion, the parking garage has always been the low point on the street,” says Gerry Dupont. “We always had the idea to beautify it somehow and internally were talking about how to do that.”
At first they considered a lighted display that would do a multi-media presentation that could change on that wall.
“But then we realized snow and ice and New England weather would probably not be conducive to that,” Dupont says.
“That’s when we found out about CEAG grants and that we could get a grant for a mural, and the garage was the ideal spot for it. Part of the process was obtaining someone to do the painting,” says Dupont, who interviewed three artists before settling on Chase. “We felt James was the correct guy. He’s local and has done other projects. His colorful vibrant displays were what we had in mind.”
Chase got started on the mural as soon as the winter weather changed over to spring, but June turned out to be a wash with more than six inches of rainfall and only eight dry days all month. Chase finally found his groove and spent several cumulative weeks carefully laying out the geometric framework before applying his signature palette of hues which has already become a conversation piece and popular selfie spot.
As a younger man Chase had his share of challenges and adversity. He recalls walking to and from work picking up other people’s discarded stuff and forgotten pieces he would use to create sculptures. He finally left the area to go to grad school in Texas but missed Manchester something fierce.
“I kept thinking about all the things I loved about the city – the river especially,” he says. “When I finally got back I realized the river is actually a dark thing – different from the way I romanticized it. That’s when I started seeing my paths and old haunts in new ways,” Chase says. “I started looking at maps of Manchester and thinking of ways to incorporate them into my work.”
He mentions that the design on the front of the Manchester Makerspace is actually a map of the gaslight district that he reassembled in the design process.
“This is the view of Mt. Uncanoonuc from my studio,” he says, gesturing toward the Hanover Street mural. As he continues his work no fewer than six people stop to give him kudos, one of them, Matthew Olivier, engages Chase in a philosophical discussion of the difference between his mural and some graffiti on the next block.
“I’m not arguing with you – I just wanted to have the discussion,” Olivier says. Chase, hanging over the edge of his lift smiles broadly.
“Me too,” he says, ready to take a philosophical discussion break from the work. “I love having moments like this.”
