RockyTheOwlMural

Dear Community Art Lovers!  

Posting a follow up to thank you all for your support of our Rocky Owl Mural. It makes me smile every time I drive down Partition Street and I've heard so many beautiful comments it makes my heart sing.

I also wanted to share that I will be moving my inventory from the Newberry Artisan Market to my studio at the end of this month.  To kick off the move I am offering 20% off all inventory...come down and take a look.  Text me at 646.436.8663 and I'll be sure to be there. 

Newberry Artisan Market, 236 Main Street, Saugerties, NY - Thurs-Sun 11-7

The front will remain 11:11 Style and fashion is currently 25% off so please pop over and dig in!

There are over 100 paintings on my website...most of these shown below should be there.  Making deals so let me know if you are interested in any particular image. FRIENDS20 for 20% off all paintings. http://www.kellibickman.net/available-inventory

Message me if you want more information and I will send dimensions and better photographs...646.436.8663.

Thank you for your support.  Hope to see you soon!

Warmest Regards,

Kelli Bickman

kbickman@gmail.com

www.kellibickman.net

Hello!  I have so much to share...it's been a complete whirlwind of activity over here and I am trying to catch up.  

Here are a few picts showing the last day of painting at my barn...Emmallyea Swonyoung came over and helped put finishing touches on, she worked so hard with me on this!  Thank you Emmallyea (shown below).  We added another layer of glow in the dark paint to the moon and put in stars to give it more depth.

My daughter helped me load the panels into my van and I drove to town to meet the crew for delivery.   When I got there the guys from the Department of Public Works were all set up with the 60' boom, the traffic cones were set up and we were ready to go.  

But we hit a major snafu...there were two big problems:

1.  The pitch of the roof was stronger than I anticipated so to put the panels up they would have to be lowered and would cover the window (violation of code) and the mural was too big.

2. The lift wouldn't be able to get the panels far enough over to the right so we would need a new lift.

After about 60 minutes it was determined that this wasn't going to work on the original wall.  Panic set in.

Then something miraculous happened...we all hyper focused and  were determined to get this done so we set out on a course to figure it out.  Some of the guys from the crew and I went on a location scout adventure, phone calls were made, doors were knocked on and a flurry of activity happened.  We were rejected a few times.

We almost gave up...but we didn't.  When we zeroed in on this wall, we knew it was perfect.  Mayor Murphy promptly got on the phone with Michael Persico, the building owner, and Michael agreed to the installation (without even seeing the painting in advance)!  It turns out Michael has a great affinity for owls so he loved the idea.  

This is a high profile wall on Partition street, just around the corner from the original location, this actually was better than where I wanted to place it in the beginning.  There is a courtyard here that is a main gathering space in the summer and it is overlooked by Salt and Fire's rooftop resturaunt as well as the fountain and street traffic, this was just perfect.

So the crew set to work.  Here you can see the panels laid out on the ground and the lift...navigating the electric wires takes great skill and HATS OFF to Rob Kleeman, Paul Boice, Joe Rutella, Rich Forbes, Joe Schaffer and Greg Chavas for your skills, perseverance and dedication to getting this job done. These guys are incredible and so appreciated!

That little kiosk is the Chamber of Commerce...such a great location at 138 Partition Street, on the Bluestone Coffeshop building.  We had an Earth Day celebration, April 22, 2023.

Shown here for the dedication with members of the board, the mayor, the chamber of commerce and Ellen from Ravensbeard.  Left to right Andrew Zink, Jeannine Mayer, Mayor Bill Murphy, Mark Smith, me (Kelli Bickman), Peggy Grenache, Marjorie Block and Ellen Miller-Kalish 

I wish I had photos of the crowd...it was wonderful and so many people showed up for the celebration...were you there?  I hope so...I didn't take any photos that day but I gave a short speech dedicating the mural to the community and cut the ribbon with a giant scissors offered by the Chamber.

photo credit Christopher Werni of Ravensbeard.

This is Ellen with Hudson, one of the owls in her care. Hudson is nearly blind and cannot be released back into the wild so Ravensbeard.org have adopted him. He has a steady temperament and really seemed to enjoy being in the spotlight.

And, here is the final image of the mural...it turned out much better than the original concept.  It measures 8' x 24', acrylic on wood panels.  I will make prints of it available soon.

This mural is dedicated to the Village of Saugerties and our community at large.  Thank you so much for your support, this would not have happened without you!  Start to finish this was almost five months in the making so your contributions mean the world to me.

And, last, but not least, for full transparency I updated the financial information here to reflect donations outside of spot fund.  I did not reach my full goal of $6k but will leave the donation link live until I do. 

There will be a full list of donors and a description of the project posted next to the mural for everyone to see...thanks to my mom, Connie Bickman, for helping with the flyer design...that will be posted soon.

My deepest apologies were sent to the former building owners Cliff and Bonnie Tienken, they were very kind and forgiving...things shifted so quickly.

As it turns out, there was a very well loved member of our community who worked for many years in the building adjacent to this courtyard...his name was Rocky and he passed away a few months ago.  I did not know him but his name was mentioned many times during the ribbon cutting so this turned out to be a very special twist  in the dedication.  

Long Live Rocky!

Thank you again for your support. If you post photos on social media, please tag me...I can't wait to see your images of the gift that keeps on giving.

All Love,

Kelli Bickman

kbickman@gmail.com

CHANGE OF LOCATION! the.mural didn't fit!

We are now (right this very moment) installing on the side of Bluestone on Partition. Just above the Chamber Kiosk! 

This is actually a perfect location but it's been a completely wild morning redirecting and finding a wall that would accommodate as well ask getting permissions.

I'll be here at 3 if anyone wants to celebrate but otherwise official ribbon cutting tomorrow for Earth Day at 4 pm.

138 Partition St

Saugerties, NY

Kelli

Finishing up our mural for install a week from today!  We will install on April 21 starting at 7:30 am so locals come out to see the crew bring the 60' boom and work their magic...right next to Ace Hardware on Main Street. 

We will have a dedication ceremony on Friday, April 21st at 3pm with Bonnie and Cliff Tienken (building owners) and another ribbon cutting on EARTH DAY, Saturday April 22nd at 4pm with the Chamber of Commerce.  SAVE THE DATES and join us!  

This photo shows me at work standing on paint cans for a better reach, and the mural in progress...on the side of my barn in West Saugerties...getting so close! photo by Emmallyea Swoonyoung

I had posted some images of work in progress on our local FB page and was contacted by a woman who wanted to mail a donation so I sent her my address. Turns out she lives so close I could throw a frisbee to her house and so she walked over to say hi and see the mural and make her donation in person. The timing was just as I was getting ready to paint the moon and she tells me she one of her favorite things is to TAKE PHOTOS OF THE MOON. I mean, I can't ask for better photo reference, her photos are glorious!

She also told me that Van Morrison wrote MOONDANCE just up the road at Big Pink so I put it on the big speakers and did a little dance and busted out the glow in the dark paint to really highlight the moon...I love it when magic like this happens. Thank you Mary M. Nevins for the inspiration! 

We are so close.  Next week installation...Hope to see you all there!

Thank you again for all of your support, I could not do this without you.

Kelli

kbickman@gmail.com