Mural comes to Northborough’s Town Common

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Mural comes to Northborough’s Town Common
Sophy Tuttle works on the mural on Monday. (Photo/Laura Hayes)

NORTHBOROUGH – For the past several days, an artist has been transforming the wall of Top Energy Gas next to the Northborough Town Common into a mural depicting bright red apples and pink blossoms.

It’s the latest work in the Northborough Cultural Council’s public art campaign “Love Northboro.”

As Selectman Julianne Hirsh was walking to where artist Sophy Tuttle was working, she said the mural “pops out.”

“I personally think it totally compliments the green of the Common,” Hirsh said. “When you stand back there, it’s the perfect backdrop.”

Love Northboro comes to Town Common

During COVID-19, the Northborough Cultural Council came up with the idea of a public art campaign called “Love Northboro.”

As council member Suzanne Cox described it, the campaign includes temporary and permanent exhibitions and collaborative art.

“This is our first permanent exhibit, which is huge for us,” Cox said.

The campaign kicked off this spring with the council’s “Go Out Doors” exhibit, which was inspired after Cox and her husband, Craig, saw a similar exhibit while biking on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in Concord.

Tuttle was one of the artists participating in the Concord project.

For their 2022 project, the council was interested in creating a mural.

Cox noted that the selectmen along with the Master Plan Implementation Committee have been working on ways to revitalize downtown Northborough and make the artery a community space.

“That fit with our whole art program of using public art as a way to placemake — to give a sense of place along this downtown and our main corridors,” Cox said. “That’s our focus.”

Originally from Littleton, Tuttle said she grew up in nature and loving plants and animals.

Cox said Tuttle’s work was a perfect fit for the project.

When the mural project began, the council asked Northborough residents what they thought should be on the wall next to the Town Common.

Tuttle produced four drafts from that feedback that were based on Northborough’s wetlands and lakes, woodland trails, streams and rivers and apple orchards and festivals. The council presented the images at Applefest and on social media for the public to vote on.

Ultimately, residents selected a mural based on Northborough’s orchards that features a hummingbird, apples and blossoms.

“I think I just wanted to show a couple different stages of the lifecycle instead of just doing apples or flowers. I did a combination of both,” Tuttle said.

Craig, who is also a council member, spent about 10 hours fixing the wall and removing its windows to prepare it for Tuttle’s mural.

After getting a picture of the wall, Tuttle used an iPad draw the mural onto the wall.

To help transfer her sketch onto the physical wall, Tuttle covered the wall surface with random symbols before overlaying a picture of the symbol-covered wall onto her sketch of the mural.

By doing that, Tuttle could guide herself through the drawing.

She was projecting that the mural would be completed by the end of the week.

“There’s a big effort, and it’s moving along, with revitalizing downtown,” Hirsh said. “There’s small steps, and there’s big steps. This is kind of a medium step.”

The cultural council is always seeking new members. For more information on how to join, visit https://www.town.northborough.ma.us/cultural-council. For more information on the council, visit https://northboroughculture.org/.

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