Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> So I would like to introduce Alan Pearsall who did the mural we have in our game room,
which is a Fenway mural with sort of a squished perspective of the Boston skyline behind it.
For those of you on VC or watching this on video, I think you can see a picture of the
mural in progress on the GoBoston website. It's also in Alan's website. I'll let him
say what that is. >> PEARSALL: All right.
>> He's going to talk about his book about Ipswich, which I guess started when he agreed
to do a mural for them, which took about three years to do, and so the book in total has
been a five year work in progress. I'll hand it over to you.
>> PEARSALL: Thank you very much. All right, well, the book, the inspiration for the book
was the mural, and so I'll start with that. I'll tell you about the making of the mural
and then give you a few stories of the reason why picked the history theme in Ipswich because
it's one of the earliest towns of America and it was an Indian village for thousands
of years. But if you turn to page seven-—you guys all have your books, so-—you can see
what the mural looks like in its finished state. It's 2,700 square feet and it took
me three summers to paint. Each summer I did about a third of it, and I could paint from
about May till about the end of October. And the weather has to be at least 50 degrees
or higher for the paint to cure so, you have to do it in pieces. So, like I said, that
high point there where the sculpture is, that's 37 feet high to give you an idea. And that
front, those three arches are 60 feet wide. And the folks in the front are life-sized,
just to give you an idea of the scale. And so what happened was I went in and they gave
me the contract. I showed them my art work. That's usually how I do it. And they wanted
to do a large picture of a lobster--that was their idea--and I thought that was okay, but
Diego Rivera being my hero as a mural painter, I said, well, let me try a little historical
idea, and I went to EBSCO with the sketches. If you to page 191 and 190, you can see the
pencil sketch. This is the first sketch I presented. Well, it's kind of the second version
of it, but--and you can see the little squares, as I do my sketches, an inch equals a foot,
so that kind of gives you a kind of an idea of the scale when it's all done, so. So, once
I got this approved, I went to the historical society and the old ladies there, they looked
at it and they actually had a couple of changes, you know. I really did my research. And if
you turn the page, you can see the color version of the same sketch. Then I get that approved.
And I do this for every mural because—-the same that I did for the Fenway mural here—-because
it's a way, you know, not only do I use it as my guide to paint it so I'm not deciding
on colors while I'm at the wall-–it's hard enough blowing the thing up--and, you know,
you just basically just grid the wall and repaint it, put the one foot squares on the
wall and then I paint it. And on this particular mural, I did that first archway to the left
with that Chief [INDISTINCT] there. And he went there because the president of EBSCO
was a little nervous about how it would look on the lumpy old brick. His building was built
in 1826, so it had bolts sticking out of it and there's a big line going across it. If
you look at the final mural, because I hide all the blemishes with fake ivy which I use
a lot in the, you know, sculpture. So, a lot of the times, we see the ivy everywhere. It's
like it's covering up some horrible tar or blemish on the building, but it's a good way
to, you know, also it kind of makes it look more real with the ivy. So, once I started
painting, like I said, it took me three summers. In the middle of the—-in 2006, we had the
floods. I don't know if any of you guys live on the north shore, but we had massive floods
in all the rivers. And on my mural when--it's right, probably, a hundred feet from the river's
edge--the idea of the mural is there's a river walk with a nice little bridge over the Ipswich
River and the mural is the centerpiece on the other side. Well, the water went up to
six feet on my mural almost, so, pretty much up to the necks of my people, so I had to
repaint everything, because I hadn't sealed it yet. I was only, like, in the middle of
it. So, you know, I still hadn't finished it, so I didn't put any, you know, protective
coating on or anything. So I had to go and paint that all over again. But, you know.
That's quite a--well, it was the--I'm so much faster at painting now from doing such a large
project. This was by far the largest mural I've ever done to date, and you just get really
fast at it. I mean, my arm was like this one's gigantic and this one was like skinny and,
you know, this one's like a tyrannosaurus rex. But, you know, it's tiring though, you
know, so I finally, like, learned to paint with my left hand even. I would paint, when
I had a big color field, you know, I figured, you know, [INDISTINCT], because it's really
large. The pictures, you know, the things, the spaces in between things, they're a lot
larger than you think. Like, I spent a whole day painting a pillar, you know, like, just
because, you know, just even doing the primer was--it was quite a task 'cause I had to--I
mean, you can see the edges are very detailed and everything and because I kept the natural
grid showing through. So, I had to do that with the primer, paint it exactly in the shape.
And, you know, you get lost in there in the grid, you know. I've numbered it and lettered
it, so I'm, like, I'm at, you know, 64, you know, H, hopefully, you know, I think, you
know, [INDISTINCT] where I've gone one down by accident and then, you know, one of the
guys, you know, he cut up a foot out of his legs. But I have an assistant working with
me and he helped a lot. He was an arts student. And they gave me this big crane. It was the
greatest thing. I looked like a cherry picker. And I could sit in the middle of the mural
and almost get to the whole mural from this thing, but, you know, I'd be up there painting
and you lose track of time. And, you know, when you paint--that's my lawyer, I'm not
here. But I was, you know, I was 30 feet in the air and, you know, I dropped my paint
brush, it goes, you know. Plus, they were building the river walk while I was painting
this whole thing, so I had a cement truck behind me some days. I mean, one day, I'm
sitting there and he's sitting right next to me. I mean, if you've ever been next to
a cement truck, it's deafening. I couldn't hear the radio next to me on the scaffold.
I go down to the guy. He's not doing anything. I told him, "What are you doing?" He's, like,
"Well, I was just watching you paint." I'm, like, "Can you park the truck over here and
then sit and watch me, you know?" But, you know--and it was fun. As the river walk started
to be built, I get the same kind of, you know, what I call my customers going by everyday,
you know, the people of Ipswich doing their jogs or walking their babies. And, you know,
I used a lot of them as my models, so, every model in the mural is either a family member
of mine because I don't have to ask permission, I just put them in, and the EBSCO employees
or Ipswich townies, and I did that on purpose. I tried to like I have--in the strike scene,
there's three cops and they're all really Ipswich cops, but you know, they're really
dressed in the times, so, you know, they had people getting a kick out of it and kind of
have a personal attachment to the mural. There's over a hundred and twelve different portraits
I did. And if you don't use real people, it looks real fake. It looks like comic book
art, you know, kind of--not comic book, but, you know, the faces start to all look sort
of the same if you don't use real models. It makes it more authentic. What's that, Eric?
Yes, actually, I did. You know, I had a lot of baby kids in strollers going by. So, if
you notice on the mural, all the cats are kind of at that lower level so that when they're
strolling along, kids who aren't interested in history, there are at least--there's like
26 cats in there or something, so, you can count the cats if you want. Guess, you're
probably looking at a nice picture of Lucy or Otis who are very--and theme-wise I did,
you can see the seasons change as I went through, and so it could kind of give you Ipswich in
every season. And the sculpture represents the wildlife around Ipswich and stuff, which
has changed a lot over the years. Back in the day, there used to be timber wolves running
around and bears and, you know, but since we've been built up, of course, those animals
aren't there anymore. I'll give you a little update about the history of Ipswich. The reason
why we chose, you know, Ipswich is one of the oldest towns. It's only a few years older
than Plymouth. In fact, even the—when they were on the Mayflower, they sat out in front
of the Cape and they're, like, "Well, where shall we land?" you know. And by that time,
a disease had knocked off about 90 percent of the Indian population and that's why the
English were able to land without very much trouble, because they were empty. You know,
Agawam, which was Ipswich, had 3,000 people in it before the disease, and by the end of
the disease they had around 400 villagers. So, they really, you know, there were eradicated
towns and Clement is actually an Indian town called Pawtuxet that was just completely--a
hundred percent of people died there. You know, they had these fields already plowed
because these were agricultural people, they grew corn. And, I think, a lot of people think
the Indians around here were nomadic because they would move in the summer--they lived
on the beaches in the summer and then the woods in the winter because for the warmth
of the trees and whatnot. It's a lot like us now because people have the beach house.
You know, it's the same thing. So, Agawam was ruled by Maskanamet [ph], and the Indians
have been living in this area for about 11,000 years. The oldest artifacts found in New England,
for Paleo-Indians is actually from Ipswich there in a place called Bolbrook (ph). I mean,
this was just after the glaciers had left and the coast was a lot close, like, in by
another 10 miles. There was a big, huge fishing hole [INDISTINCT] they found hundreds of these
Paleo arrowheads, which, you know, the next oldest, you have to go to South America so.
People have loved this place of Ipswich for such a long time. That's what's funny. You
know, the English in American history, theirs is only a few hundred years old. They just
have their 375th anniversary of the town last weekend. And if you go to page 10, you can
the mural image of the town, old Agawa. Now, Agawam, [INDISTINCT] territory is pretty much
Essex County. It's the same shape, the same borders, except at Salem and–-because Salem
was a different Sagamore territory. But the rest of Essex County was Agawam. And when
they bought Ipswich, Ipswich was that whole territory. And now there's, you know, Topfield,
Middleton, Andover are now all split off from Ipswich. But Agawam the village was the town
of Ipswich, sort of like the capital of Agawam was Agawam City sort of like, think of it
that way, and, mainly, because the river ran through there and the woods were like a wilderness.
There was Indian paths, but--like they still use today where 1A was an old Indian path
that they just kept widening and widening and widening, but that's been a road ever
since, you know, for thousands of years, that was then the coastal road. And-–but, mostly,
they used the rivers as their transportation. Same with the English did, too. They didn't
have horses here on a regular basis until into the 1700s. So, they basically took a
boat or walked for the longest time. And, like I said, the disease came and pretty much
wiped Agawam, and they kind of moved their community down into Essex, which was part
of Ipswich for the longest time. They didn't break off until the 1720s. But when Winthrop,
John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony first came, he meets with Maskanamet
[(ph)] on his boat, and it's probably with the early part of dealing with--buying the
land of Ipswich. In 1634, they made the deal and they bought the--they bought Agawam and
that's when they first started calling it Ipswich. And then Newbury came the year after
that. And if you go to page 14, you can see how old Agawam looked. And the great thing
about this is it's still a lot a park land. So, on that page that's where the chief lived
on that beautiful island that's kind of in the haze in the background. And I painted
that as well. This book I did many illustrations and paintings for it. I did the maps. I did
the graphic design and I wrote it, so it's a one-man band sort of thing. So, I like to
think of it as like Bowie's Diamond Dogs album. There are Bowie fans out there. OK. Now, this
book is like my masterpiece because I really did--they were going to have someone else
write it and I said, "Hey, let me try it. I just researched this town for the last two
and a half years, you know. And, you know, so it's all in my mind. And I looked at the
town, when I walk through the streets, I see the past. You know, I can see-–it's great
because they were very poor during the revolutionary era so people didn't rebuild all the houses.
So there's a ton of old--most in the county of these first period houses, so you can go
there and a lot of the streets, it doesn't really look that different if you take the
power lines down, you know. It's the beautiful thing about Ipswich. So, by the time the English
got here, like I said, it was very few Indians left, and Maskanamet (ph) sold the land. He
actually still lived here, though. And the rulers back then were like--the Indians were
allowed to still hunt on the land that they sold so there was no real friction between
the Native Americans who lived right in this area. And if you read old books, they always
say, "Our Indians," and then "The Indians." The "Our Indians" were the ones that actually
lived with them. The Indians they had trouble with were like the New Yorkers. The Boston
against the New Yorkers has been going on for thousands of years. The Iriquoi against
the Algonquin. They were [INDISTINCT] till recently. That's a funny comment I've made.
One of my Indians is Johnny Damon (ph). If you look close at the mural, he's the guy
right in the corner next to the pillar, it's Johnny Damon (ph) because he looks sort like
a Native American to me. I'm sure he like Italian or something, but that was before
he defected. You know, his hair is long, I had no idea he was going to quit the team.
But if you go to page 58, I did an illustration of Ipswich in the 1650s. And you can kind
of see what kind of a little town it was. And I took a map from 1915, and I have old
maps that are hand-drawn and things and tells me all the locks and stuff. And the great
thing is, you can look at this overhead view of the modern map, there's actually still
several of the houses still existing from this era, but also the plots have only been
split or quartered, you know, but they're still the same land plots that were originally
divvied out by the governor's son who was the founder of Ipswich, John Winthrop, Jr.
And the governor himself went to Ipswich's first year [INDISTINCT] his son had his grandson,
so the governor walked from Boston to Ipswich because, of course, there was no-–he didn't
have any horses, so he walked. You know, when I was trying to get the governor to come to
the thing this weekend, I said, "I'm telling you, you could take a car, the first governor
walked here." You know, it didn't work though. He didn't come. All right, Ipswich has a reputation
they like to brag about called "The Birth of American Independence." And the reason
why they say they that is in 1660, a bunch of the town members had a meeting before they
got this new tax levy--this was almost a hundred years before the revolution--and they didn't
like it. Ipswich was one of the most prosperous towns. They had the only other courthouse
besides Boston and jailhouse. And so they were like at, in their heyday in the early
1700s and 1600s. So, when they--it was 1698-–'89 rather, sorry, losing my memory. They had--they
signed a petition to the king telling him that they didn't want to pay this tax, said,
you know, what basically happened was in England, they had the fire that burned down all of
London and they just for 60 years just left the colonies on their own and didn't really
bother them and just let them do their thing. And so for almost three generations, they--clearing
land and making roads and building houses and then, you know, Charles II comes in and
says, "Now, I'd like to have a quarter of all the money you make, just send it on back
because you're English servants." And the Americans, very independent, they were already
voting for their own magistrates and stuff, which was not typically English, but John
Winthrop learned early on that all these guys who are risking their whole lives to live
in the wilderness being given their way, they got pretty upset. So they started taking the,
you know, advice of the freemen. That's what they call them. You signed an oath and that
made you a freeman and you're going to have a vote, the first democratic voting in the
area. So, after the king got the petition, he sent Andros (ph) down. He had him take
over the whole New England. They threw out the Charter, which they had since they landed,
and arrested all the people from Ipswich who were involved in it, but it's—-so it was
like all the selectmen, all the freeman, the preachers, all the main important men of the
town were arrested and had to go before the king and write an apology. And they all did
but Sam Appleton, who was 68 at that time and he refused to do it and he was jailed
until Andros (ph) was finally thrown out and then William and Mary took over. In England,
there was a new government, so they stopped chasing after their colonies for a little
while until before the revolution when they started doing it again and the whole country
got involved. I have another good story that I want share with you. Abolition and the anti-slavery
was started early in Massachusetts. And I think sometimes people think Boston is very
racist. We get that kind of a bad rap about that sometimes, but some of the earliest things,
it's the first free state. When John Adams wrote the Massachusetts Constitution, which
was the U.S. Constitution, a lot of it was based on it, he said all men were born free.
And then in that time as of 1780, a lot of people—-slaves sued the government. If you
go to page 86, this is a centerpiece of the mural. I'm sorry, yes, page 86. You can see
that woman in red getting paid by the man in green there, that's John Appleton, and
that's Jenny Slew. 1780 she sues at the court in Ipswich for her freedom. She said, "Well,
my mom was a slave, but I was just born in America. So, I'm not a slave according to
the constitution of Massachusetts." Well, the Ipswich court didn't want anything to
do with that. They sent it up to the higher court in Boston and she actually won. They
guy had to pay for her self and for the work that she'd already done for him, so. And that
was 1780. It's pretty amazing. And the guy in the green coat is my father. Thank you
very much. >> [INDISTINCT]
>> PEARSALL: Yeah, I could make him a slave owner and he's not going to get mad at me.
So after the revolution, Ipswich, of course, had a lot of men in the revolution. And after
the revolution, Washington visited Ipswich in a kind of a thank you tour he did of New
England to—-and, but after that, when by the time Jefferson was President, Ipswich
was on a decline in a lot of the industry which from the—-the war of 1812 they blockaded
the shipping which was Ipswich's main thing. They hated Jefferson in Ipswich. He was not
their favorite guy. So Ipswich had to change businesses. And then by the early 19th century,
they started doing cotton, and then using mills, cotton mills, and that's when the great
mills were built there. If you go to page 116, you can see the first mills were made
of stone and, eventually, were rebuilt into the mills that I painted the mural on--they—-in
1826, but they started out with cotton. And, again, the Abolitionist movement was strong
in Ipswich, especially in the Methodist Church. The church split in half, so then the Methodists
had two churches because one-half didn't want to deal with it because a lot of their people
worked for the cotton mills. And this is when the first immigrants started coming in. These
were Irish, mostly Irish, Scottish, and English immigrants. And then the town was about 20
percent--I mean, 17 to 20 percent immigrants, as the mills grew. And the owner of the mills
was Ambrose Lawrence (ph). He's the guy who built the brick mills, and replaced the old
cotton mills and they got into more hosiery. They did socks for the Civil War and things
like that, and the long underwear, things like that. And he is an interesting character
because, you know, the name Lawrence, you probably recognize it. The town of Lawrence
in Massachusetts is named after his dad who did shoes there and had some, you know, the
factories along the river there at the Merrimack. And along the Ipswich River, they worked on
stockings and cotton socks. And he is named for the Kansas—-Lawrence, Kansas. And the
college down there is also named for him because he spent a lot of money at the time when he
was building his mills, they were having a—-this is the precursor to the revolution, this was—-they
were deciding whether it going to be a free slave state, so people on both sides were
giving money to them and he's—-that's why they named Lawrence, Kansas. He gave them
so much money to—-that was his—-sort of his settlement. And he's also of the guys
that financed John Brown. Meanwhile, he has a mill that uses cotton. So, he's an interesting
character because he knew of—-he abolished slavery, his cotton prices go way up. So he
must have been a pretty interesting guy, you know, knowing that that was going to hurt
his business, but the morality of it made him of course to still be one of, you know,
pretty important abolitionists of his time. All right. Let's fast-forward to 1911. If
you turn to page 154, there was a mill strike in Ipswich. Now, this is—-by this time they're
the greatest hosiery producer in the world, stockings, you know, back in the day with
the line, you know, down the back. And by this time a lot of new immigrants had come,
a new wave of immigrants. And these were Italian, Greek, more of the Slavic immigrants, but
still more Irish. And the reason why the strike came about--this followed closely to a strike
in Lawrence where they—-it was the immigrants against the, you know, the newcomers, if you
will, against the Yankees as they called the Americans. They were paid differently. They
were paid about almost half as much as the Americans doing the same job. And the strike--believe
it or not, they weren't asking for equal pay. They said, "Can we just make a little bit
more? Like, can we make, you know, three quarters of what they make?" So it's even when you
think about it, it's crazy, but they weren't even asking for the whole thing. So, and in
kind of a stupid move, the mill hired a lot of the American employees there to be strike
guards. So there—-it's like they have a vested interest in—-they didn't like, they
were paid fine. They didn't even—-didn't support the foreign-born people. And by now
Ipswich was almost 40 percent foreigners now, so. Well, they weren't foreigner anymore.
They lived there, but that's the way they looked at it. And there was a real difference
between rich and poor there. Like, along the beaches now, that's now the big mansions were
being built and the money--money who--from making the money at the mills, the top hats,
you know, is building all these mansions. Meanwhile, they had mill town where the mill
actually built there whole city. There's all these little houses now and it still exist
now in Ipswich where--you know, they were called Mill Towns where all the new people
would live. And so when they had the mill strike, they—-one night things got out of
hand and, you know, a woman got shot and killed. She didn't even work at the mill. She worked
at in another factory down the road, but heard all the commotion and wanted to see what was
going on and a stray policeman's bullet hit her--hit her and killed her. So, it was a
pretty serious deal. And in the end, the mill--the strike went on even after that. There was
a trial and the strikers were found innocent because it was a policeman who actually killed
the woman. And--but the last straw, end of September, the management says to the guys,
get back on the line or you're all fired. And they still didn't. And a hundred families
were not only fired, he threw them out of Mill Town, too. So you got fired and they
took your house away. So it was a pretty, you know, that was back when, you know, management
had all the cards, I guess. So, it was a pretty serious thing back in the day. All right.
After the mill closed in '26, it eventually was Sylvania. And then during World War II,
they made the proximity fuse which is the second most secretive project next to the
atom bomb. And, you know, they said the conveyor belts never stopped except for one time when
they announced that D-Day was happening because you know, all these women working on the line—-it
was mostly, almost all women because the parts were really small, it was easier for them
with smaller hands. But also the men were, out of the 4,000 people in Ipswich, a thousand
went off to war. I mean, that shows you--I mean, it changes the whole color of the town.
But they say—-that's what they said, the only time the conveyor ever stopped is when
they announced that 'cause the women got, you know, worried about their sons and, you
know, nephews, and husbands over in the war. And now, today, Ipswich is a wonderful place
to visit. So, that's about it. Is there any question anybody might have?
>> [INDISITINCT] >> PEARSALL: Oh, right, I'm sorry I forgot
about that. >> Hello?
>> So when the mills left in the 1920s, where did they go?
>> PEARSALL: With who? >> When the mills--when the mill closed in
1920, where did that business go? >> PEARSALL: The mills just kind of lay dormant
there. Where did they start doing hosiery and stuff? I think a lot of it went over to
Slavic countries. That's where they sold all their equipment, was to these places in Russia
and stuff. But the mills lay dormant until Slovenia in 1940s like another--they were
probably empty for like ten years until when Sylvania took over. And, now, those are the
buildings that EBSCO house and the guys who published my book and who would--the mural
is actually on that building so. But that place was always a hopping place for business
even back in the day when the Grist--Town Grist Mill (ph) was there and each generation,
the new, you know, the water power for the water power. Yes?
>> So, the mural includes that picture we saw earlier, plus two other sides of it?
>> PEARSALL: That's--yes, that is just a way to that this, you know, this side of tower
and this is the front of the tower and this is the flipside. And also, if you look at
some of these last pictures, this is like in this, but these windows after I did the
whole mural, they wanted me to do a little bit more, so, like this is like the west side
of the mural. I can see the last side of the tower, and then these little windows. And
the two statues were something I added on later. and those represent the mill site history
more specifically just to that site and for EBSCO and, you know, the different, like I
said, Sylvania and some other places. >> Having dealt with--well, having visited
regularly Temple Square and BTA station with its now kind of decrepit musical artwork,
how does maintenance work? Do they have photographs, so they can touch it up, or have you touch
it up? >> PEARSALL: I touch my own stuff up whenever
I can because it's like my baby when I go there. I don't want some other artists, you
know... >> [INDISTINCT]
>> ...putting diapers on like, you know, Michaelangelo or whatever. And, you know, I do a lot of
odes to my heroes, that road to the river, I got one of those in there and, you know,
Heironymous Bosch, one of my themes looks sort of like one of his paintings. And I put
Diego Rivera in the murals because he's my hero. But I have--what I do at the end is
I coat it with an acrylic that was basically the same consistently as the acrylic paint,
just no pigment. And then I do a graffiti coat, which is removable varnish. So, the
idea is that the paint sits on that varnish, you wipe it off. But I found on the brick,
I just have to paint it over because it's so porous, like I've done eleven murals in
Havril ((ph)) too, and those were all on boards and that's--it works great on that. But I
haven't--this is the only mural I've had any graffiti on. There's this one guy who made
a giant tag on it like whoever GQA is, I'd like to punch him in the face, but, no, he
does it in the school bathrooms, too, so they know when the kid is around, you know. I said,
"Whoever gets that kid, just give me his address." But, you know, and like I said so some one
time, someone put Hitler mustaches on all the main characters in the front, I had to
go in and, I don't know what you call this little thing between your nose and your lip,
but I had to repaint those in on [INDISTINCT]. Yes, the Hitler mustache on Washington, I
mean, that is just, almost--that's sacrilegious and so wrong in so many different levels.
It's sad, you know. EBSCO is giving me a ton of work, so, I don't, you know, it hasn't
been that, like I said, it happens very rarely and for them I just do it because, you know,
they published a book of mine, and, you know, I actually went eight months over the time,
I said that was going to save me and he just kept paying my pay check instead of this thing.
So Tim has been really great. And he was into that, the mill strike scene that the boss
is in there. He didn't want to be in the mural, but I have to go, [INDISTINCT]. It's kind
of like Hitchcock; I stick myself in there in the distance somewhere. This one it was
hard. Like, you could probably see in the back, there's a page with all the little squares,
that's all the different models who I used and you'll notice there's a lot of Pearsalls.
Those are my family. So I'd have to take a picture of them and a lot of people I used
who just walked by, my chief Maskanamet was this guy who worked at the catering place.
And he just walked by everyday, and I hated the face I used and finally I just asked him,
you know, it's kind of weird like, I said, "Can I take a picture of you?" you know. You
know, a big manly guy [INDISTINCT] thinks I'm crazy. So, like, you know, I had to be
careful how I asked, but, you know, most people enjoy it and like to be in it. So, one woman
offered me a thousand dollars to be in the mural, but I can't [INDISTINCT]. I sort of
feel like it's like you're casting for a movie, you know. That's the way I look at it, so,
I knew like a friend, oh he would be perfect for this part, you know. It's kind of like
that, you know. Like one of these giant statues, it's my brother Ross, 16 feet high, you know,
[INDISTICT]. >> So, who did you use for the models for
the Fenway mural? >> PEARSALL: Well, most of the Fenway people
are famous people. So, it's like Tom Brady (ph) and [INDISTINCT]. I put, you know, Phil
Wheatley I think and--I get a lot of them in there so. Yeah, [INDISTINCT] born in Somerville.
I think Diana Ross is in there, people who were born in and around Boston or have good
Boston roots [INDISTINCT]. But mostly now I do historical murals. Because this mural,
it's got me a lot of work doing that and it's--they're nice because you get in the paper. You know,
it's a community type thing. And I do a lot with the schools where I'll go in and paint
with the kids and like they help me paint a big mural. And it's, you know, it's fun
because they can go back out and see it in public. We did one on this restaurant with
a boxing theme and on the ropes I put the little kids' names, you know, so, they can
go out and see this, you know, this real piece of, you know, it's public art, it's so cool
or something. It's given me a lot of opportunity, and, hopefully, someone, another town will
have me do a book and I'd really enjoy the writing of it as well. It's my first [INDISTINCT].
>> [INDISTINCT] >> PEARSALL: Right, see, that's what I think
is good, too, because it uses, this is good, but that's a thing. I haven't really gotten
that much. I've done probably 15 large murals now in different places, a lot of them in
an office or lobby or something. But I don't get a lot of stuff on the public [INDISTINCT]
because I think the graffiti artists sort of think of me as like a highly skilled graffiti
artist, you know. That why I'm always shocked like "here you are trying to show off" when
you're painting another piece of art work. Like, it doesn't make any sense. What are
you going to do? Stupid silly [INDISTINCT]. It's crazy. That stuff is so much harder than
the paint to get off. It's like who knows what that stuff is made of.
>> [INDISTINCT] >> PEARSALL: It's like, it fuses--right, if
you don't get it the first day, it like fuses and becomes part of the, you know, the structure,
you know. It's like who knows what that stuff is made of. I mean, it's like the Play Dough
of our era now. It's like pure chemicals. >> I'm so wondering, you know, what would
be sort of like your dream project, like unlimited funds, unlimited time, any place you could
paint, where and...? >> PEARSALL: Well, this was a dream project.
I mean, I was out on the river bank up on this jack, I don't have to climb things, climbing
staging is one of the worst things I do in the murals, like it tires me out so I can--it
makes me paint about tow hours less than a day because I was climbing up and down. But
this was my best job so far. I mean, I don't know what could make it better. I mean, [INDISTINCT],
but it was like--and the sea breeze out there, I mean, it gets pretty hot, but once the sun
went over the edge of the building at about one o'clock, painting for eight hours straight,
that was like Michaelangelo. It was the greatest thing ever, you know. I guess my next project
is--I'm doing the Department of Revenue lobby in the Hampshires, Concord New Hampshire.
So, it's a big kind of, love the wainscoting, you know. I look really forward to it. It's
nice and big, you know, 700 square feet, but compared to this one, this was 2700 square
feet. I mean, it's just, you know, it's amazing. If you flip a few pages back on--let's see,
I'll give it to you. I just love the picture over the mural with nothing on it on the wall
on page 188. You can see the wall before I started and you can see what I mean with the
big black marks on it and, you know, how I had to hide all that stuff. But that's, you
know, once I convinced them to let me do it, I mean, I walk out there I'm, like, "Oh, my
God, now I got to do this thing?" you know. Like I said, it's probably four times the
size of anything I did before that time. So it was--but, you know, you plan it out, so,
you know, just like anything, just a big painting, don't be scared. You know, just you use the
same thing. I do an under-painting like all in brown first just like I would paint a canvass
like Rembrandt. I follow the masters' suggestions, so. But I like the writing aspect of it, too.
I mean, this was a great project because I got to, you know, kind of flex all my creative
skills in one project, you know, and I really enjoy history, too, so it's fun. I enjoyed
doing the research. Kind of a fun thing of being an illustrator and a muralist is each
job, you get a different, you know, one week I'm doing Fenway Park and then, you know,
something that's so totally, it just gives you a good variety and, you know, that makes
it fun. All right, thanks for having me. >> Thank you.