Naas mural boxes are a big hit!
'Rothar' - as seen in Poplar Square
The Naas streetscape has received beautiful dollop of colour with a series of ornate murals.
The work is the result of a very amenable collaboration between the Tidy Towns and local artist Cian Mekitarian (46).
Cian is originally from Kill, though now living in Cleevaun beside the Hospital –“ye got to mention the tribes!”.
He is a graduate of the Limerick College of Art and Design - “Limerick is my spiritual home” – where he excelled in print-making and painting.
He revealed the idea to paint the junction boxes was something he and local coulr Bill Clear – also the Chair of the Tidy Towns - had as far back as last year.
“Myself and Bill were talking about it before Christmas. The brief was Irish language, and local … before it went before the sausage-grinders of committees for funding, then all we had to do was wait until the weather got better,” laughed Cian.
“It still hasn’t been great, so I literally finished the last one last night (24 July).
In what must be one of the finest compliments paid a politician by an artist heard by your reporter, Cian commented on cllr Clear: “he neither micro-manages nor says ‘be cool’, because both are disappointing. That’s what I like about Bill’s approach”.
Each box has to be primed, designed, and then painted so the process can take between 12 to 16 hours each. (They are located at The Forge, St David’s, and two on Poplar Square.) A positively gleeful Cllr Clear said: “They had to be captioned in Irish, and have something local – like ‘rothar’ [bike] because of the new cycleway”.
“They should have a dual purpose. The cúpla focail when people are looking at a nice picture,” he said of the original brief.
“He’s painted four now, and we’re going to keep going and going until we paint as many as we can in the whole town!” he declared.
Permission was given by Kildare County Council, who told Cllr Clear that they had “no problem” with the idea, and now he has ambitions to expand the project into “Sallins, Johnstown, Kill, anywhere in the MD (Municipal District)."
Mr Mekitarian was asked about such ambitions, and while positive, did reveal a little flaw in Cllr Clear’s optimism on account of the new popularity of these painted boxes.
“I’d have no problem expanding, but already both Dunlavin and Baltinglass have been on to me,” he explained.
“It’s huge in Dublin at the moment, and it’s something that is a bit hot at the moment. It is a lovely way to spend a sunny day, maybe not so much a damp overcast day,” he smiled.
He was generous when asked if he’d share the work, now that he was in such demand.
“I couldn’t resent a second artist, taking bread from another man’s mouth, but there’s plenty to go round, and I would love to do more,” he said.
