When Douglas Orr painted the “Hands & History” mural at K and Heron streets in 2015-16, he memorialized elements of Aberdeen that no longer existed.
With his latest mural, “Bubbles,” he set out to capture a spirit of hope and possibilities for the city’s future.
Last week he put the finishing touches on that bright, colorful piece, which was commissioned by Our Aberdeen, a downtown improvement group. At roughly 70 feet tall by 140 feet wide, it covers the north wall of the D&R Theatre, facing Wishkah Street.
It’s no easy task creating images that large.
“You’re so close to what you’re painting that you have no clue what you’re painting,” Orr said. “It just doesn’t seem possible that painting a line 8 or 10 inches thick only looks like a little tiny line from the ground.” The girl’s lips alone are 10 feet tall, he said.
He took photos after each day’s work and studied them, correcting any flaws the following day before moving on to other elements.
Boosting the level of difficulty was Orr’s fear of heights. He had to do much of the work standing on a small pneumatic lift that sways in the wind. “And I hold on — like holding on to it’s going to save me if the thing falls!” he said, laughing.
He’s mostly happy with the finished piece. “I wasn’t thrilled with some things on it, but I won’t tell you what those are,” he chuckled.
Many of the images show local waterways — a key element of Aberdeen’s future, he believes.
“That’s a big possibility for our redevelopment of downtown. If we learn to utilize our waterfront, the city will be so much better off as a whole,” he said. “I think it’s time for us to move into hotels and other nice things along the water, instead of factories.”
He’s especially proud of his Lady Washington and Chehalis River Bridge bubbles, and he feels the Kurt Cobain Landing bubble carries a special note.
“I think embracing him and Nirvana more gives us a lot of hope,” he said. “People say we can’t have tourism as our main source of industry here in Grays Harbor and Aberdeen, but I think they’re absolutely wrong. … We get thousands of tourists a year just looking for Kurt Cobain stuff, and we don’t use that at all. We don’t take advantage of it.”
Next on Orr’s agenda is a mural on the ramp where I Street dead-ends. He said he’s in talks with the Department of Transportation to secure permission and choose a design.
“I’ve found a couple of people who were nice enough to volunteer to pay for the paint,” he said. “And as soon as we get the OK for that, we’re going to be doing that.”
It’s all part of his mission to brighten up a city where so many structures have been demolished or left vacant.
When a mural is added, he said, “all of a sudden it’s not an empty wall where a building used to be. It takes away from that look that we have of a city where every other building has been torn down. It looks like an old man that’s missing a bunch of teeth, and these are kind of like dentures that fill in the holes.
“Anything we can do to brighten up our little city when it’s gray — and it’s gray a lot here — is needed.”
Aberdeen artist Douglas Orr finished his latest downtown mural, “Bubbles,” last week on the rear wall of the D&R Theatre. (Photo by Dan Hammock | The Daily World)
Aberdeen artist Douglas Orr stands with his image of Kurt Cobain Landing, part of the “Bubbles” mural he finished last week on the rear wall of the D&R Theatre. (Photo by Kat Bryant | The Daily World)
