Photo courtesy Dan Summer. Pictured: Joey Summer and Louis Hokayem
When the exterior wall of a historic building was defaced on the Downtown Gainesville Square, Joey Summer decided that it was a great opportunity to turn the wall into something special for the city.
“It all started when people tagged the building…it was vandalism. I had been to New York and Washington over the summer and I saw some really good public art on the street that was really well done. So, I thought to myself why don’t we put up some of our own public art? I thought maybe to paint a quote or something thought provoking…and then I realized I didn’t have any artistic ability.
Watch the video: Joey Summer and Louis Hokayem Bring Art to Downtown Gainesville.
“I called my friend (Louis Hokayem) who did (have artistic ability) and we got together and floated some ideas around. He came to me with this story about his grandmother who survived the tornado and I thought that was a great theme. We started to do research on it and we were still working on this quote idea,” said Summer, who is a graduate of Gainesville High and current law student at the University of Georgia.
The duo decided to use a quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had visited Gainesville in 1938 and gave a speech to thousands after the city had suffered a devastating tornado in 1936.
“Roosevelt defined the time back in the 1930s, during the Depression era, and we did some research and came across his speech that he gave in 1938 (in Gainesville); two years after the town had rebuilt itself,” he said. “It was a long speech but a few words stuck out, ‘Good people of Gainesville.’”
The new mural, which took seven hours to complete, graces the outer wall of Yellow Fin on Bradford St.
“It was kind of difficult to do it, too, because that building is over 100 years old and it was crumbling. We had never done anything like this before, we were both newbies at this,” Summer said. “We had to figure out how to make this wall a paintable surface and we went to Gainesville Paint and got a sealant, sealed the wall and then we were actually able to paint.”
Summer hopes that the mural inspires others in the area to promote and preserve Downtown Gainesville.
“We have great opportunity here, a great downtown scene; its own culture and identity,” he said. “It’s a true American town.”
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