ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Cambridge native Caleb Neelon works on his mural on the side of 33 Munroe St. in Lynn on Friday during the Beyond Walls Mural Festival.
By MATT DEMIRS
High up on the 125-foot boom lift are Caleb Neelon and Lena McCarthy, projecting color on a once plain-brick wall at 33 Munroe St.
Neelon of Cambridge and McCarthy from Wayland, are transforming the four-story building with a design Neelon describes as “one big family love quilt,” as part of the 10-day Beyond Walls mural festival downtown.
This is Neelon’s first time working with McCarthy, a 2014 graduate of Boston University, and she’s learning a lot from him she said. He reached out to the young artist when his other partner couldn’t be here.
When Neelon contacted McCarthy through email, the aspiring muralist called within minutes to say she was on board.
Neelon, 41, has been an artist since he was young and got into it by drawing. By the 1990s, Neelon became immersed in the global graffiti scene under the name SONIK.
Throughout the years, he’s combined his love for art and history by not only changing the face of buildings worldwide with paint, but also authoring and collaborating on more than two dozen books, including the 2011 HarperCollins release, The History of American Graffiti.
In this work, Neelon dedicated a subsection to Lynn which he proclaims had a special place and unique graffiti scene.
“They had people like Temp, who is painting right now on Oxford Street for the festival,” he said. “He was a key figure in graffiti here in Lynn.”
He will speak at the History of American Graffiti on Wednesday, from 6-8 p.m. at Raw Arts Works with fellow Beyond Walls mural artists Temp and Cey Adams.
As for the big family love quilt blanketing the side of 33 Munroe, the design came from his love for color.
“Colors are awesome,” he said. “They are one of those things you can’t explain. It’s just that colors are great and the more of them … when you are walking and come across a whole big blamo of color it feels good.”
He said he’s looking forward to interacting with the community, even though he’s already gotten his fair share from foot traffickers curious about the duo’s work.
Projects like this, he said, show that cities are a really viable place for cultural production.
“That’s the grown-up version of what we do,” he said. “But for kids, it’s color in the street. It wows them.”
He said seeing families with kids and hearing them say “wow” is the best feeling one could get.
The owner of the building at 33 Munroe St., Diane Giambrone, who’s lived in Lynn for four years, loves the use of color on her wall.
“Thank you for transforming my ugly, red brick wall into a colorful and vibrant mural,” she said. “Caleb is awesome, I’m so glad they picked him to design the face of our wall.”
This weekend, she’s been invested in watching the festival unfold, bouncing from location to location where painters are working.
“I’m so happy to be a part of this and proud of Al Wilson, the executive director of Beyond Walls and everything he’s done for our community, as well as the entire staff of volunteers and artists,” she said.
Matt Demirs can be reached at [email protected].