9-18-2024 4:02am

Mural Artist Chris B. Murray: Talent Meets Luck and Determination

Lesley Misko Editor

Ed.: Mural artist Chris B. Murray has been commissioned recently by Boyertown's Odd Fellows to paint a mural welcoming visitors to Boyertown. The photograph from a Facebook post headlining this article is a mock-up of the proposed mural.

The following article was prepared following a "B Inspired" podcast episode recorded with Chris B. Murray following the installation of the "Better Bear" mural he painted on the west side of Rita's Water Ice in Boyertown.

by Jane Stahl

“I had encouragement from so many people,” mural artist Chris B. Murray recalls. “I’ve been lucky from the start.” His talent in the arts was recognized early by this mother, a teacher, and his teachers in the school he attended in upstate New York, close to Canada, even though he suggests that there wasn’t a lot of funding for the arts. “

“My mother understood the importance of pushing, of nurturing talent and, for example, made me stay after school for additional art lessons. And while I wasn’t happy about it at the time—I just wanted to play video games—today I’m grateful for her insistence. My parents always supported me but understood I had a tough journey ahead.”

After graduation from Rochester Institute of Technology and a year he took to figure things out, he moved to Philadelphia, met his wife—a Boyertown graduate—and the type of determination that his parents had modeled translated into a goal Chris made for himself—making his living solely with his art. “You know, they always tell you to have a Plan B. Well, I had no plan B which meant that Play A had to succeed.”

The first five years were tough, he admits, “I took any job under the sun, all kinds of jobs—waiting tables, bartending—whatever I could find so that I could do my art.

“At the time I was focused on commercial art, drawing for comic book companies and ad agencies. I did a lot of little, low paid jobs, editorial jobs and loved it. I felt like a working artist and was paying bills. I loved knowing my skill could pay the bills.

“After five years, things started happening for me; I remember the day one of my illustrations was published in the New York Times. I felt I’d made it. Today, it’s such a great feeling to wake up, knowing that what I can do with my abilities allows me to pay my bills.

“And I learned…learned the business of art. I learned to negotiate, learned how long a job would take, what they should pay me versus what they were willing to pay me. Lots of artists struggle with the business side,” he concludes.

Chris started working on murals after 2020. Until 2020, he was doing illustration art and comfortable working alone. After 2020, he learned that he wanted to get out of the studio, be around more people. “The realization after COVID that I needed to find a balance between working alone and working with and around people jumpstarted my journey into mural art work.”

And so, he moved to South Philadelphia. “In the city, I immediately felt the energy, felt at ease, more creative when I’d walk outside my door. I realized I needed to see more stuff, needed to see the workings of the world and my creativity exploded!”

To date, Chris has created five murals and has lots of projects in the future including the possibility of additional murals for Boyertown to welcome folks to town and share what the town is about.

While Boyertown’s “A Better Bear” is done in a graphic style, he considers his work to be more detailed. His plans for future murals or large-scale paintings are to be more painterly, abstract, or patterned. “Interestingly, the work that speaks to artists is not necessarily what they themselves do; they look for what’s out of their norm,” he explains.

Chris shares that he did two sketches for the Boyertown mural and put a lot of himself in the one that was chosen. “I kept the needs of the community foremost; I’d have created something a little more playfully ‘edgy.’ Instead, I presented what I thought the town wanted or needed to express about itself.”

He did , however, include images that speak to him in ways that folks may not realize. For example, the turtle is on there for his daughter. He calls daughter Vivian his “turtle.”

Chris is quick. In a little over two weeks, the mural was finished. “I have to be quick,” he explains. “There are more projects to do!”

His speed is due, in part, because he uses spray paint with different sized caps that allow him to “draw” thick lines or thin ones. “I found spray paint to be less messy and quicker than painting by hand. Using spray paint cuts the job in half, time-wise. And I can get vibrant colors. I ‘ve spent a lot of time studying colors and color pallets of comic book art.

“My technique was actually inspired by the style and use of spray cans of graffiti artists. I guess this is my nod to those graffiti artists over the years who got arrested.

“Hand control is essential; my long-time experience in pencil drawing seemed to make the transition to using spray cans easy.”

To begin, Chris creates a grid to guide his painting. Before long he’s coloring in the grid according to the sketch he created. When that’s done, the finishing touches bring the mural alive.

And once again, as memories of the former “No Place for Hate” mural fade, Chris’ artwork helps Boyertown to express its desire to be a welcoming community, demonstrating kindness and offering friendship to all.

The smile on his “Better Bear,” colorful flowers, the ladybug, the bunny, the bees and birds and butterflies, and the burst of sunlight add to the mural’s positive message and hope for the unity that the Boyertown community—known as a special kind of place— means to offer.

The conversation with Chris from which this article was created can be found on the "B Inspired" podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform including Spotify, Google, Castbox, Breaker, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic, and Apple.

The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, Lodge 708

Boyertown Lodge #708 was formed on November 12, 1903; the first meetings of the Boyertown Lodge were held in Grim’s Hall located on South Reading Avenue opposite the old Town Hall. The current hall was completed in 1925; a mortgage burning ceremony was held on April 13, 1957. Membership grew from 24 members to its high of 368 in 1928, but the main meeting room and the grandeur of their hall remain much the same since 1925.

The traditions of their founders, whose motto is “Friendship, Love, and Truth,” whose aim is “To elevate the character of man” and whose mission focused assisting working men find employment when out of work. This concept of helping others in England in the 18th century was deemed so strange at the time that the group were referred to as “odd fellows.” The father of Odd Fellowship in America was Thomas E. Wildey who emigrated to Baltimore, and with four other men initiated a lodge in 1817 named the Washington Lodge of Odd Fellows.

Om 1826, the Grand Lodge of America was instituted with 12 lodges in 4 states. The Order grew until in 1866 there were 2000 ledges in 40 states. The Grand Lodge of America evolved into today’s Sovereign Grand Lodge, a world-wide order with 10,000 units in 24 countries.

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

May 25, 1926: The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, Lodge 708, 400 members strong, is dedicating its new home today. They bought the Rahn building at 35 East Philadelphia Avenue for $20,000 two years ago and have worked quickly to achieve their dream of a magnificent new meeting place.

The three-story structure came complete with a barber shop and pool hall. They also purchased the property to the west where Dr. Gordon Borneman had his dental office, for additional space, extending the existing structure 70 feet to the rear.

Their new house has two storefronts and a banquet hall on the first floor, a kitchen and another social hall in the basement, apartments on the second floor and a beautiful third-story lodge hall. It cost $55,000.