Artist painting large Wabash River mural for senior center

VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) - Andy Jendrzejewski leans into the unfinished painting, the scaffolding creaking in protest, and his focus on the dried brush strokes of deep greens and pale blues.

"It's hard to imagine, isn't it, when you're this close?" he asks, taking a step back, careful not to disturb a variety of paint-stained brushes and open cans. "You just have to use your imagination and then, every once in a while, climb down and take a look, see if it's all coming together like you hope it is."

Jendrzejewski and his wife, Amy DeLap, both retired art professors at Vincennes University, have for months been working on a large-scale mural for the community room at Clark's Crossing, an old downtown school building repurposed as a 47-unit senior living apartment complex.

The stage in what was the old school's gymnasium was enclosed with the construction for the creation of a community room, leaving a giant, rather plain white wall, one Andy Myszak, co-owner of Myszak and Architecture and Development, the local company that was part of the development team, wanted to see filled with one of Jendrzejewski's well-known abstract creations.

But designing and painting a mural is a monumental task, one as much about math and patience as it is about artistic talent.

And this one, Jendrzejewski said, all started with a simple photograph of the Wabash River.

Myszak and officials with Flaherty and Collins, the Indianapolis company now managing the apartment building, were instrumental in helping Jendrzejewski decide on a theme for the mural. Both had varying ideas, but when the group settled on something of the Wabash River, Jendrzejewski wanted nothing to do with a traditional "postcard" image.

"I wanted something deeper," he said. "I wanted something that would stir people's imaginations over a long period of time. Because when you look at a postcard scene, you have a preconception of what it is - just a beautiful picture.

"But I wanted to choose an image that people could constantly explore and find new things to enjoy about. Plus, my style lends itself to that. It always has."

Once Jendrzejewski chose the picture he wanted to use - one taken right on the river bank near the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park - he set to work taking it apart, per se, and devising a plan for how to transform it from a 4-inch by 6-inch photograph into a large-scale mural that will become the focal point of Clark's Crossing's community room.

Using Photoshop, he added a filter to the photo to soften its edges and give the image a more paint-stroke feel, he explained. Once he began to visualize the picture as a painting, one very abstract in nature, he laid a common grid pattern over it.

Each square represented a 2-foot by 2-foot section of the mural. By adding numbers across the top and letters down the side, each square had its own identifying combination.

He then printed enlarged images of each section to act as a guide as he painted.

Next came the process of sketching the same grid pattern onto the massive white wall, an act that, in itself, took days.

Once the grid was finished - and the scaffolding was in place - Jendrzejewski set to work using the pieces of his enlarged photograph to sketch the corresponding image for each square. When that ardent task was completed, Jendrzejewski, using first careful and then broad brush strokes, began to actually paint the image onto the wall.

"It's all been very reminiscent of what I enjoyed doing in high school," Jendrzejewski said, crossing his arms across his chest. "Long brush strokes, abstract art, but it all comes together to create something beautiful."

He's been working on the mural since September, going back over each square time and again, and only the top third of the mural is totally finished at this stage in the process.

But he is hopeful, especially with DeLap's continued help, that he'll be done sometime after the first of the year.

Jendrzejewski has a couple of names in mind for the mural but he plans to let the residents of Clark's Crossing decide, possibly even with a building-wide vote.

"The Blue Wabash" or "The Wabash Pearl," he said are two possibilities he's come up with as he's crafted each square of the mural and marveled at its deep colors.

"There was a lady in here the other day, and she said to me, 'Everywhere I look I see something beautiful," Jendrzejewski said, his eyes reflecting the pride of such a compliment. "I'm very humbled by that type of response.

"I believe painting heals, and that's why I like this project. People here, like everybody else, have problems, yet when they look at this, perhaps they'll have hope."

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Source: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://bit.ly/1MNy1JO

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Information from: Vincennes Sun-Commercial, http://www.vincennes.com