The sky becomes more accessible on Front Royal’s Cloud Street

We caught up with Warren County Project for the Arts (WCPA) founding member artists Melissa Ichiuji and Chris Stephens finishing up the first 2020 downtown Front Royal full wall mural, Wednesday afternoon, October 14. The project began on the side of the old Ramsey Hardware building at 221 East Main Street 10 days earlier on October 5, Ichiuji, who was handling the ground level finishing-touch duties, told us.

What a difference a week-and-a-half makes. Above (literally), on Oct. 5 Melissa Ichiuji preps the wall of her coming art gallery at 221 E. Main St. for the first work of art to be displayed there. Below, Chris Stephens on crane duty this time and Ichiuji apply finishing touches 10 days later. 1a/ Courtesy Photo WCPA 1b/ Royal Examiner Photo by Roger Bianchini

The wall mural theme is fluffy clouds against a Carolina blue sky at, of all places, Cloud Street’s intersection with East Main Street. And while the cloud design was conceived for the location some time ago, Ichiuji said the skyscape “theme of transcendence is especially fitting in these uncertain times when levity and grace are so needed”.

As reported in our earlier exploration of Warren County Project for the Arts efforts to beautify and expand an artistic presence in downtown Front Royal (“New ‘Dining’, ‘Shop’, ‘Walking Mall’ banners portend more public art on the horizon”), those efforts have now been linked to the Town’s post-pandemic emergency management closing’s weekend walking mall experiment and Community Development Block Grant-enabled downtown façade improvements.

However, Ichiuji told us that as both a member of the Arts Project and owner of the building she had not sought grant funding to avoid any potential conflict of interest. The Cloud Street wall mural project was self-funded by Ichiuji and her husband to kick off this portion of the WCPA public arts initiative.

Above and below, artists Melissa Ichiuji and Chris Stephens jump for the clouds in celebration of a job well done. Courtesy Photos WCPA

While she has had an art studio in the rear portions of the building for several years, her plan is to open the front of the building as an art gallery by the spring of 2021. But until then, come rain, shine or snow, the cloud-bearing Cloud Street side of her building will serve as a reminder of things to come on the inside.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many must a wall mural of this size be worth? Enjoy the view when you are in downtown Front Royal and with these final images of the Warren County Project for the Arts creative process at work.

Who says art and math don’t mix? Courtesy Photo WCPA

The road may have been closed, but the sky was opening up on Cloud St. through the first half of October. Courtesy Photo WCPA

‘Excuse me while I kiss the sky’ – the writer may be showing his age, or just musical preferences (that’s his story and he’s sticking to it), with a lyrical nod to Jimi Hendrix to close the show. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

And these images of the finished project and its inspiration:

Courtesy Photos WCPA