Chances are if you’ve driven up Frontier Road towards Prosper High School, you probably haven’t noticed the manila colored storage shed… until now. Texan artist turned New Yorker Nathan Randall Green has injected some SERIOUS color into our farmland with a new mural that has everyone talking. Set on the corner of Frontier and Prairie Crossing across from a field of cows (and sometimes a donkey), the shed’s primary purpose is to house landscaping for the community.
After driving the property one afternoon, Republic Property Group Co-CEO Tony Ruggeri saw an opportunity. “Tony approached our team and said, in so many words, ‘Hey, that building is kind of an eyesore. We should paint something cool on it’.” says Morgan Staton, Creative Director for Republic Property Group. “Our graphic designer is an artist as well and immediately thought of Nathan, so we called him up to see if he was interested in taking on the project. Thankfully he was really into it!” (Nathan being Nathan Randall Green, Texas born artist now living and working in New York, who is best known for his bright, geometric pieces.) Green flew in for a site visit and absorbed the surroundings and took photographs for design inspiration.
“I took note of the big, blue Texas sky and the green and burnt umber of the surrounding fields and sorghum crops and made my color palette from there,” Green said. Because the walls of the building are corrugated steel, which is very difficult to paint on, a flat steel wall was installed and acts as the surface for the mural. This also allows for the piece to be moved to different locations around the property, like a pocket park. After hours of applying primer coats, projecting the drawing onto the wall and drawing it out by hand, taping, painting and eventually spray painting due to the foggy conditions (spray paint dries quickly), the finished piece is called LFRD Pastoral Palette (Light Farms Razzle Dazzle) and took seven days to execute. (Fun fact for those not familiar with the original meaning of “Razzle Dazzle”: it comes from Dazzle camouflage, which was a ship camouflage, used extensively in World War I. It consisted of complex patterns of geometric shapes in contrasting colors, interrupting and intersecting each other. Unlike other forms of camouflage, the intention of dazzle is not to conceal but to make it difficult to estimate a target’s range, speed, and heading, causing the enemy to miss his shot when firing.)
The geometric shapes and lines that make up the mural were also pulled from the site visit, where Nathan was struck by the angular nature of the barn timber beams that make up the Light Farms Information Center and Fitness Center. “It’s exciting for me as an artist to bring a work of art out into the public space where people of all ages could see it and hopefully enjoy it. I wanted to create a warm, vibrant piece of art that injected a little bit of color onto a wall that didn’t have it before. To the residents of light farms, thank you and I hope you enjoy it.”
So, next time you’re in the neighborhood, or if you feel pulled to make a trip out just to see this awesome work of art, please do! It’ll be featured for an indefinite period of time, and you don’t want to miss it.
About the Artist:
Nathan Randall Green was born in 1980 in Houston, TX and received his BFA in 2004 from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a founding member and partner of Okay Mountain Gallery and Collective. Nathan has most recently shown his work at Mulherin New York, Hus Gallery in London, Left Field in San Luis Obispo, CA, Barry Whistler Gallery in Dallas, Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Philly, Art Palace Gallery in Houston, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Austin Museum of Art, and LVL3 in Chicago. Nathan has also participated in Artist-In-Residence programs in Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Michigan, Illinois, and Dallas. As a founding member of the Okay Mountain Collective, Nathan has recently presented new works at the Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Freight & Volume, New York, Prospect 1.5 New Orleans, University of Houston’s Blaffer Museum, the McNay Museum in San Antonio, Cress Gallery in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Nathan lives and works in New York, New York.
