Photos: Follow local artists’ 4-year process to create, install ‘The Hallowell Mural’

Back in July 2019, Hallowell artists Christopher Cart and Jen Greta Cart worked together in City Hall improvising a compass with a tape measure and pencil to draw a large circle on the 700 square feet of canvas sections taped together that would guide the composition of his Hallowell mural project. All photos by Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal.

Posted July 1, 2023

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Christopher Cart, left, and Jen Greta Cart make a compass with a tape measure and pencil to draw a large circle on the 700 square feet of taped together and primed canvases July 5, 2019, in the second-floor auditorium of Hallowell City Hall. It would be almost four years before they could install the completed mural onto the back side of the building next door.

Christopher Cart begins work on “The Hallowell Mural” on July 23, 2019, in the old Hallowell fire station.

After having painted most of a large granite sculpture, Christopher Cart sketches in the stoneworker carving it July 23, 2019, in the old Hallowell fire station. The statue is based on historic photos of Faith, the 36 foot tall central figure on the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Mass., that was carved in Hallowell in 1877.

Christopher Cart adds highlights to the bowsprit of a ship Sept. 4, 2019, in the old Hallowell fire station.

Christopher Cart adds details to the face of a woman Dec. 19, 2019, in the old Hallowell fire station.

Christopher Cart adds details to the face of a woman Dec. 19, 2019, in the old Hallowell fire station.

Holding a laptop showing a reference photo in one hand and a pencil in the other, Christopher Cart sketches city historian Sam Webber onto the mural July 28, 2021, in Hallowell.

With sections on the floor behind him, Christopher draws in another section of “The Hallowell Mural” on July 28, 2021, in the old Hallowell fire station.

Christopher Cart works on his mural July 15, 2022, in the old Hallowell fire station. He finished the painting in late summer of 2022, but by the time masons got the back wall of 89 Water St. prepared, the weather had gotten too cold that fall to use the glue that holds it to the wall.

Christopher Cart, left, and Jen Greta Cart, behind him, install “The Hallowell Mural” on June 19, 2023, on the back of 89 Water St. in Hallowell. The window behind them is Hallowell City Hall where the project started in July 2019 with blank sections spread out in a second floor auditorium so that they could draw a large circle.