Artist and designer Joan Biddle paints the street at the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue, the gateway to the NEON arts district, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. L. Todd Spencer The Virginian-Pilot
Mary Miller helps paint the street at the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue, the gateway to the NEON art district, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. L. Todd Spencer The Virginian-Pilot
Rachel McCall paints the street at the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue, the gateway to the NEON art district, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. L. Todd Spencer The Virginian-Pilot
Artist and designer Joan Biddle said she brought 13 gallons of paint to use at the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue, the gateway to the NEON art district, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. L. Todd Spencer The Virginian-Pilot
A project is under way to paint the street at the corner of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue, the gateway to the NEON art district, on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015. L. Todd Spencer The Virginian-Pilot Volunteers paint Norfolk intersection for NEON Festival By: Jordan PascaleThe Virginian-PilotOctober 13, 2015 NORFOLK
Humorous Green, Drama Violet and Synergy Blue are brightening up an ordinary downtown intersection. Those bright colors, the motif for the NEON arts district, now adorn the intersection of Granby Street and Brambleton Avenue. They create a "front door" for the area and promote the NEON Festival on Thursday and Friday, said Downtown Norfolk Council President Mary Miller. The art project is taking three days and more than 15 gallons of garish chartreuse, seafoam and purple paint to create an 80-by-50-foot bright box around the intersection. But don't mistake the splash of color for a crosswalk pedestrians are still supposed to walk between the parallel white lines. It's among the first street art projects done in Norfolk, Miller said. Miller, artist and designer Joan Biddle and Jesse Scaccia, editor of Alt Daily, a Pilot Media publication, volunteered with others Monday afternoon to stencil and paint the intersection. It should be finished by this evening. The intersection design is simple, with clean lines and three colors, but the painting is not, with traffic whizzing by. "It's fast. It's loud. It's agitating. The work is meticulous. It takes patience," Biddle said. "You're working in sections, and you want to make sure they all line up, but then you hear this huge Mack truck rush past you... It's dangerous." Biddle also designed the directional triangles on the sidewalks that take pedestrians from one major mural to the next. A grant from the Business Consortium for Arts Support paid for the project. No tax dollars were involved except for the use of city barrels to block traffic. The paint won't last forever the artists used exterior latex paint, not street striping grade. Plus, the intersection is set to get a facelift in the next year or two, Miller said. But in the meantime, Scaccia said, the project promotes more walking opportunities, gives the area character and makes the city interesting. The art project follows the trend of playful crosswalk art across the country, including a hopscotch design and zipper-themed crosswalks in Baltimore, rainbow designs in San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta for gay pride week, and even guerrilla art projects in Canada that resulted in fines for the artist. Evening rush-hour traffic greeted the artists with honks, thumbs up and curious looks. One driver, waiting at the red light with windows down and a huge smile, turned to his passenger. "How about that?" he said. "I've never seen that before. "I wonder what it's for." Jordan Pascale, 757-446-2276, jordan.pascale@pilotonline.com http://hamptonroads.com/arts/764663/2015/10/volunteers-paint-norfolk-intersection-neonfestival