VILLAGE OF MANLIUS – Artist Mark Noble has recently been responsible for beautifying the local community with his murals scattered around the village of Manlius.
One such painting can be found on the side wall of the Tops Plaza closest to the Skytop Coffee at 119 W. Seneca St. What was once a soft yellow wall now sticks out with hallmarks of a warm afternoon in Manlius: people walking their dogs, feeding the ducks, fishing, and standing in line to order at the ice cream shop Sno Top.
“I kind of wanted to show an average, typical summer day in the village with people hanging out by the amphitheater,” Noble said. “It’s a montage that gives a nod to Manlius.”
The Tops Plaza mural took about five weeks to complete, Noble said, but that span of time through June and July included surface prep like pressure washing and scraping off flakes of paint from the original coat. All the while he had to face 90-plus-degree heat and rain some days in addition to the lessened air quality brought on by wildfire smoke drifting in from Canada.
The first steps in making that panoramic mural showing the Village Centre and some of its surroundings came with photographing the wall as it was before and using Adobe Photoshop to lay out the new design. Working his way down, Noble began his many brushstrokes with the blue sky and clouds and then transferred his desired images over with a digital projector in order to trace the recognizable village structures.
The placement of the buildings incorporated in the artwork is not according to scale with regard to size or the real-life distance between them, as Sno Top and Manlius Library are bunched up even closer than they actually are, while the Manlius Fire Department station on Cazenovia Road is visible over yonder, not appearing to be the roughly 1.5 miles away that it is from Arkie Albanese Avenue.
Another outdoor mural by Mark Noble Designs is down the road on the side of the plaza containing Eva Relaxation Spa that faces the Bruegger’s Bagels parking lot.
That one replicates an aerial drawing of a less developed 19th century Manlius that was sketched by an artist from a tethered hot air balloon floating above the village. The initial sketch can be viewed in the village clerk’s office.
Though he kept the look consistent with the earlier drawing, Noble took the liberty, he pointed out, of adding in a banner that reads “Manlius” and “Est. 1813” as well as some extra trees.
As the original did, Noble’s colorful work of art shows Liberty Square, a smattering of houses, and churches.
Along with its visibility to drivers who turn the corner onto East Seneca Street, Noble said he likes that the mural has been complemented by the construction of a slightly slanted stone walkway underneath that allows people walking through to admire it up close.
Across the street, yet another mural courtesy of Mark Noble Designs covers the entire exterior wall on the left side of the dive bar Buffoons.
Featuring Manlius’ trumpet-blowing seraph logo, that mural at 107 E. Seneca St. depicts a well-known village couple in their 90s, Jack and Barb Monson, sitting on a creekside bench in Mill Run Park as a puppy trots along a nearby footbridge.
Noble said the Buffoons mural brings more life and “beautiful landscape scenery” to the street corner. He said it also helps that Buffoons will soon have a spruced-up facade and a new roof installed with colors he’ll help to pick out.
Back in the spring, Noble also painted swan wings on the wall across the alley from Cafe 119 where people can stand in between and pose for a photograph. He was separately in the middle of painting the likeness of Faye the swan on the side of St. Laurent Framing when the mother of four cygnets was killed by enclosure intruders Memorial Day weekend.
At that point, both of Noble’s swan paintings inadvertently became memorial tributes to Faye, he said.
Noble, a former Village of Manlius trustee, said that overall he enjoys putting his attention to different artistic projects and the creative challenge of it all, whether it’s the mural on the exterior of the Freedom of Espresso in Fayetteville, the nautical art such as a three-dimensional octopus at Pediatric Dentistry & Family Orthodontics, the redoing of the Manlius Senior Activity Centre logo and the fireplace upgrade in their reading area, and the grouping of murals he’s finished in Manlius this year.
He has additionally devoted time to a 50-foot historical mural extending across a wall inside the Village Auditorium and vibrant, welcoming artwork inside the children’s party space Little Village Play with rolling hills, flowers, white picket fences and fluffy clouds.
In the fall, he’ll be painting another mural on the adjacent wall of the Manlius auditorium that’s set to include images of a Suburban Park rollercoaster, the high school that used to be situated on Pleasant Street, and the Chenango Railroad Line stop that’s now The Station 603.
All of Noble’s commissioned murals in Manlius were given the go-ahead by Mayor Paul Whorrall along with approval from connected business owners for the paintings that appear on the exteriors of local buildings.
For a few, including the ones seen on the Tops Plaza building and Buffoons, Noble was assisted by a senior art student from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Fayetteville resident said he hopes to eventually move his palette and brush into other villages if they want similar work done in ensuing years, but for now, he said he’s grateful for the passersby who share positive remarks about his art.
