蜜柚直播 artist Joe Pagac spent the better part of the past two weeks suspended 100 feet in the air, painting a mural that could thrust him into a national spotlight.
Since he started working on 鈥淏uck Hill鈥 in Washington, D.C., he has received offers from Memphis, Tennessee, and Pecos, Texas, where he鈥檚 been asked to paint a 70,000-foot mural along a highway.
He's also beginning a 6,000-square-foot project at 蜜柚直播 Medical Center鈥檚 children鈥檚 wing.
鈥淭his could be a career changer,鈥 Pagac said Monday after he put the finishing touches on 鈥淏uck Hill,鈥 his depiction of the little-known Washington, D.C., jazz sax player/mailman. 鈥淚t鈥檚 national calls now instead of just local calls.鈥
"Buck Hill" is the largest tribute mural in Washington, D.C., said Nancee Lyons, who heads the MuralsDC project. To date, MuralsDC has commissioned 85 works in 46 D.C.听 neighborhoods.
"The mural was painted directly across from our headquarters, so I had the joy of seeing its creation and witnessing the public response," said D.C. Department of Public Works Director Chris Geldart. "The reaction from the jazz community and the public has been powerful. People are constantly photographing it or just looking in awe watching Joe at work. Joe did an excellent job capturing the likeness of Buck Hill. Some parts of the mural are so lifelike it almost looks three dimensional."
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Joe Pagac鈥檚 鈥淏uck Hill鈥 mural stretches to the top of a Washington, D.C., apartment complex.
Pagac鈥檚 image of Hill stretches from the sidewalk to the top of the nine-floor Elysium Fourteen apartments in the historically black U Street Neighborhood. City officials and neighbors will celebrate the mural on Tuesday, which D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has proclaimed Buck Hill Day to honor the man who spent four decades delivering mail to his neighbors and more than 60 years playing his saxophone in clubs around the city.
Hill died in 2017 at the age of 90. Pagac鈥檚 mural, his third with the D.C.-based MuralsDC public arts project, depicts Hill leaning against the wall, his mailbag at his feet while he plays the saxophone.
The image came from a photograph Pagac had of Hill performing for a couple of neighborhood kids.
鈥淭he neighborhood historically was kind of a traditional hub for black musicians,鈥 including Marvin Gaye and Duke Ellington, Pagac said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to do another Marvin Gaye mural. ... I was trying to find someone who hadn鈥檛 had a mural done of them in D.C., and I really liked Buck Hill鈥檚 story.鈥
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Next week muralist Joe Pagac will begin a 6,000-square-foot project at 蜜柚直播 Medical Center.
Pagac and his wife, Arielle Pagac-Alelunas, arrived in D.C. in early August and had hoped to get to work. But they had to wait until the scaffolding was installed, which took a couple of weeks, Pagac said.
Pagac-Alelunas overcame a fear of heights to help her husband operate the scaffolding, which required two people to operate the pullies. Pagac said while he painted, his videographer wife edited video sitting beside him.
鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 such a large-scale work, every time we wanted to step back and see what we were doing, we had to take the lift all the way up and then take the elevator down and walk half a block up the street to look at it,鈥 Pagac said.
The mural looms large over the upper-middle-class U Street corridor dotted by coffee shops and happy hour hot spots.
鈥淎s you get close to this intersection at 14th Street and U, that鈥檚 when you see more of the coffee shops and sports bars, and the mural kind of leads you to this,鈥 said Byron Tonic, Elysium Fourteen鈥檚 community director.
鈥淲ith this one being as tall as it is, you can walk blocks away and turn around and it鈥檚 looming over this part of the city,鈥 added Pagac, who completed his first MuralsDC project, 鈥淧lanting Roots,鈥 in 2017 at the three-story Ketcham Elementary School.
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Joe Pagac鈥檚 first MuralsDC project, 鈥淧lanting Roots,鈥 is at Ketcham Elementary School in Washington, D.C.
The next year, he painted his version of the Buddhist tale 鈥淔our Harmonious Friends鈥 on the side of an apartment building near the Smithsonian Zoo.
"This is Joe鈥檚 third consecutive project with MuralsDC and he's known as one of the easiest and most flexible artists to work with," Geldart said. "He鈥檚 fearless, talented and doesn't mind heights 鈥 three important qualities in an outdoor muralist.鈥
The 鈥淏uck Hill鈥 project may also open new avenues closer to home, Pagac said.
鈥淣ow that I know I can stomach being on one of these scaffoldings, hanging off a roof, there鈥檚 a whole bunch of other buildings that I鈥檝e had my eye on the last few years, but I didn鈥檛 want to pitch murals to the owners because I wasn鈥檛 sure I could pull them off,鈥 he said.
鈥淪o now that I know that I can do this, there are a few of them ... that I will try to do in the next year or so.鈥