Recently, the City of Norman has come to life with bright and vivid detail. Some hard to miss new contributions are murals, which adorn the skylines and walls of businesses and office buildings.
One such mural is the newly finished project embodying the mission of the ReStore, 1100 W. Main St., in the former Homeland building, which the mural adorns.
The currently untitled mural intertwines visions of Peter Max’s style and late ’60s graphics.
Artist Skip Hill is responsible for this piece of artwork, but he hardly considers it his own because of the community’s heavy influence and involvement.
“I might not even sign it. This isn’t Skip Hill — this is the community,” he said.
This sense of community and urgency inspired Hill to create the mural.
“Everyone wants to be ironic, but sometimes I want to see a beautiful image,” Hill said.
Each item seen in the mural, such as a washing machine, can be donated to the ReStore, where they are recycled or sold. All proceeds go to the Habitat for Humanity program.
Giving back to the community is something Hill feels passionately about.
He credits much of his success to other people. Hill said giving back through donating and organizing workshops for children shows that he cares about community.
“If you don’t care about others, people aren’t going to care about your work,” he said.
And people do care about his work, and that of others like him. There is a ground swell of support for art in Oklahoma. Hill specifically mentioned the Brady Arts District and Midtown Plaza as examples.
“The citizens of Norman, the students at OU (the University of Oklahoma), and the visitors to our community are fortunate to be able to experience an amazing collection of public art,” said Larry Walker, Chair of the Norman Public Arts Board.
“Oklahomans are enthusiastic about art, but not about collecting art,” Hill said.
He added that although he has art all over the world, staying in Oklahoma allows him to be a big fish in a little pond.
“You can make an impact,” he said.
Another big fish in the little pond that is Oklahoma is Rick Sinnett. His current work on the Financial Building in downtown Norman, a piece he calls “The Mega Red Tail Hawk,” will be 85 feet by 150 feet when completed.
Sinnett is a local artist of Mustang, Okla., who first began 20 years ago as a “fine arts serigrapher,” or someone who work with silk-screen prints. He only recently began painting murals in 2011, originally calling them giant fine-art prints, until he looked up the definition of a muralist.
“Less than 2 percent of mainstream muralists get to pick what they want. It’s dictated by clients — I get to create whatever I want,” Sinnett said.
He is very persistent with his artistic style. His art is psychedelic-like, recalling themes of Oklahoma artists and musicians such as The Flaming Lips.
“If I draw a cowboy, it’s going to be in my style,” Sinnett said.
Some people in the community might see murals as another form of graffiti, but Sinnett views murals around the city as positive. He believes the murals bring traffic to areas that are normally neglected and ultimately detour graffiti and thinks that the innate sense in humans to respect art is to blame.
“My subjects aren’t subjective — politics, ethics. It’s for everybody,” Sinnett said.
Fellow muralist Hill agrees, saying he views graffiti as a political act, even though he calls the act itself “stupid.”
“Graffiti is about being cool, but they’re just pissing in the wind,” Hill said.
