A walk down Calvert Street may never be the same. What was once a nondescript brick wall on a government building is now adorned with flying Blue Angel planes, swimming rockfish and sailing boats courtesy of augmented reality technology on the new mural along the side of the Arundel Center building in Annapolis.
After working 10 hours a day for about six weeks, artists Cindy Fletcher-Holden and Comacell Brown Jr. signed the recently completed “The Best Place — For All” mural at a ceremony Thursday evening.
Not only does Fletcher-Holden and Brown’s mural feature familiar figures, sites and creatures it also comes to life.When a viewer scans a QR code and then holds their phone to the mural, the art begins to move with planes flying off the wall , fish flopping and boats riding the waves. It also allows passersby to become part of the mural when they hold the fishing rod.
The two artists were among 39 applicants who applied for the project. They were asked to collaborate due to their complementary skills and experience.
When he found out Fletcher-Holden and Brown wanted to work on the project, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman thought they might want to tackle the mural independently but was soon pleased to learn they were eager to work together.
“This mural was about all of Anne Arundel County — north, west, rural south and of course the Chesapeake Bay,” Fletcher-Holden said. “Being a generation apart from two different cultures and vastly different worlds of technology we created this.”
Fletcher-Holden is from Annapolis and has more than 30 years of experience painting, including creating Annapolis’ first-ever mural in Eastport. That mural was the brainchild of former mayor Ellen Moyer, to whom homage is paid in this mural with a boat labeled “Miss Ellen.”
Brown comes from a different background. He is the lead designer at Tunnel Vision, a sports apparel company in Severn and a teacher and muralist who created the Carr’s Beach mural at Park Place, dedicated to the former go-to location for Black Marylanders to attend concerts and relax.
“I must thank Cindy; she taught me so much about painting and just looking at art from a different perspective. We had great stories up on the lift, we learned so much about each other,” Brown said. “This is bigger than the painting to me.”
The Arundel Center, the seat of county government in Anne Arundel County, will now be home to not just the largest mural in the county but two smaller ones inside. All three murals depict people working in various professions in the county.
The outdoor mural across from People’s Park depicts BWI Marshall Airport, Fort Meade, the Maryland State House, farmland and the artists themselves in bright, vivid colors. The indoor murals, on the left wall of the County Council chambers, depict musicians, dockworkers, welders, firefighters, farmers and other manual laborers in more muted sepia tones.
The work was commissioned by the county, The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County and the Annapolis Arts District.
“Art, especially public art, is a welcome to an area,” said April Nyman, executive director of The Arts Council of Anne Arundel. “It welcomes visitors. They may know nothing. They may be driving through, but they see a welcome with public art.”
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley attended Thursday’s ceremony posing with Pittman reeling in a fish. Buckley expressed his excitement about the piece and took the opportunity to ensure residents understood what a dinghy was as he continues to be embroiled in the debate dubbed “dinghygate” over whether his personal boat can be a city vehicle and circumvent docking regulations.
“First of all, I want to say that is a dinghy right there for anybody who reads the paper,” he said pointing to the boat with “Miss Ellen” inscribed on the side. “Public art doesn’t discriminate. You can love it, or you can hate it, but everybody gets a chance to stand there and say whether this is good or this is bad.”
As someone who doesn’t have “an artistic bone in his body,” he thanked local painters and muralists for making Annapolis and Anne Arundel a special place to live and visit.
“When I look at this, I just feel this huge sense of gratitude that I live here and that you all live here too,” Pittman said.
