Allan Appel Photo
A colorful three-story-tall banner of a charming silhouetted urban landscape — recognizable to New Haveners was unfurled Thursday morning on 817 Grand Ave.
The five-story building at that address is owned by the Urbane Building Association. It is a condo with nine residences, and its street-level tenant is CitySeed, the sponsors of the art work by Hamden-based artist Gerald Saladyga.
The painting is titled “Starry Night on Grand Avenue.” According to the news release, “it’s intended to bring attention to CitySeed’s center of operations and create a dynamic visual experience for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians traveling Grand Avenue, at the gateway to downtown New Haven from Fair Haven.”
The middle panel of the 12-by- 30-foot painting, which is done on vinyl, features a structure with several tall exhaust chimneys that just might remind you of English Station farther east on the avenue. Nearby it is a wind turbine, similar to the one near Criscuolo Park, suggesting power sources both old and new.
Saladyga said his process involved taking photos of buildings on Grand Avenue and the surrounding area, then standing in the middle of the avenue and looking west towards the skyline of downtown. The aim is to encompass or evoke the view from the Mill River to the Green.
He said it was a surprise to him artistically that the painting ended up being nocturnal. “Many thanks, Van Gogh,” Saladyga said, in the group’s press materials.
The project was three years in the making, said Jerry Morin, one of the condo board members involved in the process.
Having raised private funds to beautify the building, the sponsors put out the word and reduced the field from six artists to three finally to selecting Saladyga, a well exhibited landscape artist. By plan, all the candidates for the commission were area artists; Saladyga has a studio on East Street.
“We didn’t want the usual approach, where a community comes together and gets something painted or pasted on a wall and then it just peels off,” said Morin.
The banner-painting was luffing like a tight sail in the easy wind Thursday morning, and seemed secure. If the effort is successful in two years or so, the sponsors said they would have another competition and commission and then hoist up another banner painting.
The best way to view the work is driving, or better yet, walking or bicycling in a westerly direction on Grand.