Clinton’s newest mural project begins in Boulevard District

By Sherry Lucas

     Artist Lucia Duque could not have known she would fall in love with Clinton. Mississippi was an ocean away when she lived in a beautiful neighborhood in Spain’s capital city, Madrid, in an artist community so visually rich, “You go to the street, and you see art everywhere,” she said.

     They have a saying in that city that brings a smile as she shares it. The translation is “from Madrid to heaven,” as in, once you’ve been to Madrid, the only place that can top it is heaven above.

     “I thought I would be there forever,” she said. Then she met her Mississippi-born husband, Josh Brister, a musician originally from Brookhaven, through a friend in Madrid. Two years after they wed, it felt like time to move to the United States and be closer to his family as they started their own.

     The artist had been to the United States before, with collectors in the Midwest and West Coast and patrons who supported her art colony work and evangelical missionary efforts through art back in Madrid. But she wondered how a permanent move might affect her art, fearing a creative block. When she first set foot in downtown Clinton, though, she was charmed and declared that a Mississippi move would need to settle here.

     “To me, what’s so important is the community. It’s so important to be close to people,” she said.

     Businesspeople in downtown Clinton told her, “One of the beautiful values in Clinton is the community,” she recalled. She took that to heart and wanted to be a part of it. “I am so happy here.”

     They’ve lived here for six years. Duque teaches art after school at St. Andrew’s Lower School in Jackson, holds private painting lessons at her home studio in Clinton and continues her own acrylic on canvas paintings for a future exhibition.

     When Main Street Clinton issued a call for artists to create a mural as part of its goal to revitalize Olde Towne and Clinton Boulevard Districts through public art, she answered. Many of its activities concentrate in Olde Towne, so this effort boosts vitality and focuses new attention in the Clinton Boulevard District.

     Duque, who had specialized in mural painting in her studies in Spain, was selected for the project by Main Street Clinton’s Design Committee, and chose the SouthGroup Insurance Building at 201 Clinton Blvd. for her canvas.

     “I loved the bricks,” she said of the long brick wall that she’ll enliven with her design. “They told me I could choose to do something botanical or something about cars or a midcentury theme. My theme is botanical. I know I’m good at botanicals. This is my strength.”

     There are other reasons, too, that magnolias became her spotlight.

     “I was at the Clinton Community Nature Center, and they have a magnolia tree in front, so I like that connection,” she said. Also, “My neighbor Marilyn Disepo has two or three magnolias in her front yard. It’s so beautiful. My son Rio is now four years old, and he loves to play in her yard. He calls it ‘the jungle’ and says, ‘Mommy, I want to play with Marilyn in the jungle,’” she said, with a fond chuckle. “Marilyn, to me, is one of my best friends here, and it’s like he has another grandmother.

     “When I chose the magnolia, I was thinking of that, too. I want something that, in the future, my son could see it and remember her. To me, it’s part of my life in Clinton — it’s important, because Marilyn is there, too.”

     In scaling up her sketch on the wall, she has made the magnolias blossoms bigger to balance the space.

     “I want to do something with a lot of color,” she said, acknowledging that as a signature of her artistic style. The spectacular white blooms, plus hues of rose, green and gold bring an all-seasons appeal to the image.

     She aims to complete the mural in a month. As warm weather persists, she works on it in the mornings and on the weekends and afternoons, too.

     Her design will use the rich red of the bricks as her background, painting in voluptuous magnolia blossoms and leaves in gold, rose and green to add a vibrant splash to Clinton Boulevard’s scenery.

     “To me, the most important thing for a mural is to look at the neighborhood, look at the building. Before I created a design, I was looking around all of this area, trying to listen to the place.

     “To me, the character of the building is the bricks. So, I don’t want to take away from that.”

     She wanted her design to do them justice. It also makes the process a bit trickier — a mistake on her flowers, she could easily fix, but one on the bricks would not be so easily remedied.

     “But I like a challenge,” she said with a grin, “so I say, ‘Let’s go!’”

     Duque wants viewers to feel the joy and the peace when they see the colorful mural, either driving by or pulling in for a longer look.

     “Sometimes that happens with my paintings. I remember in one exhibition, a person came by and said, ‘I felt so bad today with a lot of anxiety, and when I see your painting, I feel peace. I feel more joy.’ … When people see art, it can change their feelings.”

     “One of my goals is that when people see this painting one day, it brings something like that to their life.”

     Taking art to the streets helps the businesses, the neighborhoods and the people there, she said.

     “I think art is so important for that.”