Oh, the Murality

I live in a mural-less landscape heretofore known as New York Public Libraries. I assume that of the 80ish some branches of NYPL there may be at least ONE mural in a children's room somewhere in the city, but I've no idea where. Feeling more than a hint of mural-withdrawl, I turn now to Duncan Weller. An illustrator of picture books in his own right, Mr. Weller produced the mural for the Guildford Public Library. Not only is it beautiful, but Mr. Weller incorporated all sorts of elements, some to the good and some to the bad. For example:

This is Duncan's attempt to incorporate the fire alarm. The fire alarm was later covered with a plastic case operable by adults only. Fire trucks and firemen came roaring to the library on three seperate occassions due to children being attracted to the firebird. Patrons and staff of the library had evacuated the library. Duncan apologizes to anyone who had to stand in the rain.

Scroll down to see this in its entirety. I once worked in a library (that will remain unnamed) that was going to go through a renovation. It had huge blank walls and everyone thought it would be wonderful to have a mural done in the children's room. The idea was nixed because, and this is what I was told, "it might offend someone at some point". Oh, how I envy you Guildford Public Library. How I envy you.