Artpark is preparing to recreate a painting hailed nearly 40 years ago as the largest in the world by the Guiness Book of World Records.
Gene Davis' Niagara 1979 will be returning to parking Lot C at Artpark in time for the upcoming concert season. Tanis Winslow, Director of Visual Art and Family Programs, says she and other Artpark staff and community volunteers will begin the work after the parking lot is sealed, around the beginning of May.
"We're basically going to begin by laying the center line with masking tape. We're going to be using about seven miles of masking tape, I hear, and about 450 gallons of paint," Winslow said.
That's enough to cover 43,000 square feet. Winslow says it's a special paint designed to last five to ten years.
"A step above what they use on airport runways. It'll keep everyone's tires safe in the 90 degree heat," Winslow said.
Unlike Davis who spent all summer creating the original work at Artpark, Winslow says this time it will be "a mad dash" to complete the installation before the first concert May 20.
"I think it's something that will bring people joy and happiness and I think that's something that Artpark is about," Winslow said.
Winslow says it's a community project made possible through a $20,000 crowd funding campaign. The biggest challenge for her, she said, is matching all the original colors in the giant abstract work.