THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 13, 1995 TAG: 9501110140
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARLENE FORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
``Looks just like Arizona,'' said a tall blond woman in denim and leather, tilting her head for a better angle of the panorama. Half-sketched, half-painted, the in-progress mural on the country nightclub wall was almost recognizable.
``Arizona all right,'' she added.
Another customer shouted over a row of booths, ``You from out West?''
``No, Norway. But it looks just like a postcard I used to have of Arizona,'' she answered before swinging out the door.
Stopping from his work, young artist Rod Bennett screwed up his face and muttered, ``Norway. She's from Norway, but she knows it's Arizona. It doesn't stop. One person says it looks just like a picture they have over their couch or they vacationed there last year. Everyone has something to say.''
Bennett and Scott Hines, both art students from Virginia Wesleyan College, are learning that public art, even the semi-public art in a country music nightclub in College Park Square called Rockin' Rodeo, is open to the thoughts of an opinionated populace.
And while there's a mildly threatening note tacked to one wall that reads, ``You Don't Have to Understand It; It's Not Finished,'' Hines said he likes to have people around when they work.
``I like the constant harassment and the fact that people are willing to accept what we do - even the mountain range that when you look really close is a reclining nude woman,'' he said.
They also appreciate that for a semester break job. Working as artists beats busing tables in a restaurant or refunding Christmas presents in a department store.
Painting the mural for the local establishment is a mutually beneficial venture for owners Mike and Billie McCoy. The McCoys wanted something original on their 65-foot wall - for a cheap price - so they sent the word out to several local college art departments and got a couple of takers.
``We got Rod's phone number from Wesleyan and called him,'' Billie McCoy said. ``His father said he'd love to do it even before we talked to Rod, and now that they've actually started to paint, we're excited, too.''
As for the two students, both wanted to try their hands at something monumental for the experience - and a little money.
Hines and Bennett are a mixture of college-age wiseguys and serious artists - a blend that fits in just great with the casual, hooty atmosphere of the club. Puzzling over the length of the wall, Hines said, ``65-five feet? No, this wall is closer to a trillion feet.''
The two converging walls include a desert scene, mountains, a cowboy on a bucking horse and several assorted characters that resemble the likes of Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood and Garth Brooks. Colors are blended and muted. Most of their ideas come from works by considerably more famous western artists than the two of them, such as Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell and Thomas Hart Benton. Books are piled in the middle of rows of paint cans, CDs of country singers are flung around the drop cloths.
``We've probably spent more time researching the mural than painting,'' Bennett said. Hines yelped, ``But we only listen to the country music when we have to.''
He continued, ``This is our first effort at collaborating, and at working this big. You know, when you're working small, you don't have to move your feet to solve an artistic problem.
``We help each other. We draw off each other. We get in there and pump each other up, and together we work as checks and balances. Rod's work is very distinguishable; he has a very tight realism.''
Bennett said, ``And Scott has definitely watched too many cartoons as a kid. He has this whacked kind of line and color that's artistically exciting.''
As far as they're concerned, the best thing about the job is that the owners have given them free rein within a generally country theme.
``Why wouldn't they,'' laughed Hines. ``We're the art gods here.''
Bennett grimaced at the ``trillion-foot'' wall and asked, ``Do you think we'll ever finish?''
His partner answered, ``I guess we'll have to finish by Jan. 23. That's when school starts again.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARELENE FORD
Rod Bennett, left and Scott Hines, both art students at Virginia
Wesleyan College, are painting a mural at Rockin' Rodeo country
music nightclub.
by CNB