A new mural has popped up in West Reading. Installed on the wall behind Baldwin Brass, Blue Arabesque is a collaboration between Wyomissing Arts teacher Mike Miller, Wyomissing Students, and local artist Suzanne Fellows.
Fellows, a Studio Artists at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts and teacher at Reading Area Community College, says her inspiration for Blue Arabesque comes from Islamic geometric patterns.
“I’ve been asking Mike repeatedly if I can do a mural with him, and he finally said yes, which also allowed me to work with his students” says Fellows. “I showed the students what I do, and the kids began making their own triangles and squares stencils.”
Up close, each individual stencil piece is crafted by a different student artist, something Fellows said she is very proud of.
Fellows says the Wyomissing students worked with her in the fall to complete the mural design and layout. Once finished, the pieces were put in storage until summer to place on the wall.
To install the mural, Miller and Fellows began by painting adhesive to the wall. Next, they carefully lifted the mural sections into place using a scaffolding platform. Once completed, the pair touched up the edges and sealed the mural with a UV resistant varnish.
Fellows said Blue Arabesque is her first large outdoor mural project, and is excited to work on more in the future. “What can be more fun that painting on the walls, I’d love to design more murals in the future.”
Miller says he has lots of mural projects in the works, the next one going up a few doors down behind the Penn Avenue Dental office.
