Angie’s: Where the locals paint

Noelle Johansen, staff writer

Just before Main Street on 700 North sits a long, barren wall. It is beige, windowless and lacks any distinctive features. The wall belongs to Angieís Restaurant and will soon be the home to a unique collaborative mural by 12 local artists, young and old.

The Angieís mural art contest is the brainchild of Matt Vance, senior in business administration. A self-proclaimed geek, Vance makes a hobby of analyzing the flaws and strengths of commercial advertisements. He said he once emailed Low Book Sales to inform them that their ads are obnoxious.

ìHe analyzes every billboard,î said Crista Vance, Mattís wife and junior in family consumer and human development. 

It was this sort of observation through the eyes of a business major that the concept for the mural came to life. Last July she and Matt were driving south on Main Street and stopped at the red light at 700 North, facing the empty wall on the north side of Angieís, Crista said. 

ìInstead of analyzing it like a billboard, he analyzed it as a potential billboard basically and was like, ÃWhy is there nothing there? I mean, itís just a blank wall. It doesnít even have windows or anything. Thereís no purpose for it,íî she said.

The vision of a painted mural in the ìpurposelessî space began to form in their minds.

ìThatís when we started expanding the ideas and started the research,î Crista said.

Though Matt often dissected the efficiency of ads and billboards, he said his original idea for the wall was a mural, an artistic statement.

Matt said Crista did all the research, looking into details like city regulations and the price of paint. After about a month of research, Matt approached Saboor Sahely, founder and owner of Angieís Restaurant, with the mural contest idea.

ìI thought it was kind of a crazy idea, I mean, kind of unorthodox,î Sahely said of his first reaction to Mattís idea. ìThe more we talked about it I thought, ÃYou know, it would create some excitement.íî

It turns out, the idea to paint a mural on the wall was not unique.

ìWe thought about a mural on the wall a while back, but not in the context of having a contest,î Sahely said. ìWe thought weíd get an artist to put a mural on that and kind of depict the history of the valley.î 

Sahely said he is excited for the final product, which will be painted in April. 

ìIf we get a great product on that wall out there, it will create more interest,î he said. ìItís good for the local artists too, to get their work showcased there.î

On Oct. 10, 2013, Matt took his plans to the Logan Planning Commission in a public hearing for approval to have the mural painted. The project was approved unanimously by the commission on the condition that the final design be approved by the community development director.

The Angieís mural art contest is based around the theme of ìpeople, places and times of Cache Valleyî and opened to art submissions in November. The contest is divided into four age groups: 12-14, 15-17, 18-30, and 31 years and above. Submissions will be on display in Angieís for public viewing and voting throughout February.

Three finalists from each age group will be selected by public vote and a jury, including Sahely and a representative from the city council, according to Matt. The 12 selected artists will collaborate and paint their representations of Cache Valley on a landscape backdrop contributed by Mattís brother, Spencer Vance, a junior in art education.

ìAfter weíve determined the 12 winners of the contest, before they actually start painting the wall, Iím going to go and paint in the background which will consist of basically a horizon line, a mountain range, the sky and a river,î Spencer said. ìThen the 12 winners will be painting objects in the foreground that have to do with Cache Valley that people can relate to.î

Contest winners will receive cash prizes from $50-100 as well as a permanent claim to local fame.

ìWeíre going to be working on a surface thatís 12 feet by 50 feet, so the mural is going to be very visible,î Spencer said.

He said he has worked previously on large projects but nothing comparing to the magnitude of the mural. He described the project as an ìexcellent opportunity for students as well as aspiring artists and local artists who are looking to get more recognition, build their resumes,î and ìalso an opportunity to do networking and just a learning experience to be working with other artists.î

Chuck Landvatter, USU adjunct professor of painting and drawing, is a veteran in painting murals. He worked with several friends on a mural for the Salt Lake Running Company in 2010. 

ìIíve collaborated quite a bit and Iíve had successful collaborations; I should say more successful and less successful collaborations,î Landvatter said. ìSome of the challenges are trying to synthesize disparate ideas and trying to dovetail them to make a cohesive work of art.î

Rachel Holladay, a senior in painting and drawing, heard about the contest through an email from the art department.

ìI thought it was a cool idea, but as I read the details for the contest and things, it sounded like a lot of work for not a ton of reward,î Holladay said.

She said she is stingy with her time, especially during school.

ìIíve done murals before, and itís a huge endeavor time-wise,î she said.

Holladay said she liked the idea of th
e contest but lacks adequate time to dedicate herself to the project.

Matt said the contest has not received the quantity of submissions they originally expected, but he and Crista remain optimistic that last-minute entries will filter in before the deadline on Jan. 24.

The contest requires an entry fee of $15 for the first submission and $10 each for the second and third submissions.

ìThatís not a very big price to pay for that type of exposure,î Landvatter said.

Spencer called the contest a ìonce-in-a-lifetime opportunity.î

ìHaving an opportunity like this to put your work in such a high profile location is a really unique chance, especially if 10 years from now they come back to visit where they came to school and theyíre like, ÃThat was me,íî Spencer said.

For more information on the contest, emails can be sent to angiesmural@gmail.com or readers can visit the Angieís Restaurant Facebook event page.

ñ noelle.johansen@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @broelle