By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007; VA14
It looked like the deal was off.
Shortly before officials with the Mirant power plant were to unveil plans for a mural -- a costly piece of art intended to beautify 80,000 tons of coal stored along the Mount Vernon bike trail in Alexandria -- word got out.
To say that tempers flared would be an understatement.
City officials denounced the project as a shady public relations stunt to help the power plant veil its image as a polluter. Neighbors, already angry with Mirant after years of coping with ash raining down on their homes and cars, groused. Even casual observers derided the mural as a potential blot on the heavily trafficked waterfront path.
Stunned by the backlash, Mirant officials scrubbed the project's Presidents' Day launch. Although they did not officially kill the mural -- a massive acrylic-on-cedar fence tableau depicting the life of George Washington -- they told commissioned artists Patrick Kirwin, 48, and Christopher Erney, 38, that they would continue to sponsor the $422,000 artwork if they could show that there was community support.
Without much in the way of public enthusiasm, many people assumed the project was dead.
They assumed wrong.
After more than a month of heavy campaigning, the artists presented a list of supporters to Mirant, a list they say includes history buffs and reenactors, folks from the city's tourism industry and people who represent historical sites that will be depicted on the mural, including Carlyle House and the Masonic Temple.
The weight of the backers -- some of whom the artists would not disclose to The Washington Post lest, they said, the city try to dismantle their efforts -- was convincing enough that Mirant officials have given the project a green light.
"The concept was supposed to be a feel-good project," said Debra Bolton, Mirant's vice president of external affairs. "If people were that adamantly opposed to it," the company would reconsider the project. "But we've gotten other insights. We said, 'Okay, we'll go forward.' "
Although the City Council does not have any say over whether the mural is erected -- it will be on land owned by Mirant -- many officials and residents are still upset.
The city's relationship with the power plant can best be described as hostile, with the city having long sought to shut it down.
The plant was shuttered briefly during summer 2005 for environmental violations, but it was reopened with stricter controls. The plant has the backing of the Energy Department and other federal agencies, which have made clear in a series of rulings that the plant is necessary for the security of the region's power grid.
"I feel, and a lot of other people feel, it's an underhanded attempt to distract people's attention from the real issue, which is that they're polluters," said City Council member Andrew H. Macdonald (D). "They should be closed down. This is all just false advertising."
Said council member Rob Krupicka (D), "We're a community that supports public art, but they shouldn't assume that by doing this it changes the perception about this plant and the harm it's doing to the community."
It's that harm that worries Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D), a vocal critic of the plant.
"I have no doubt the artist does good work," Moran said. "But this is just a Mirant ploy to buy goodwill, believing a painting along the parkway will cover up the fact that they are pumping hazardous pollutants into our community."
Kirwin, an art teacher at the Torpedo Factory who specializes in trompe l'oeil painting-- a technique that produces images so realistic they deceive the viewer at first glance -- criticized the city's handling of the project. He said he believes city leaders have been poisoned against the mural by their hatred of Mirant.
"Whoever the so-called opposition is, they're not against the mural, they're against the power plant," Kirwin said. "Alexandria is nuts. It's run by jerks." The opposition "is a punitive punishment against Mirant . . . only the mural doesn't pollute."
The 1,200-foot-long piece of art will be broken into 12 10-foot-high panels depicting Washington's life, from his boyhood at Ferry Farm to the planning of the District. Additional panels will display oversize images of Washington as he has been depicted over time, such as on the quarter, the dollar bill, postage stamps and the Purple Heart. The Founding Father's likeness will be painted on the fence that lines the bike path.
If all goes as planned, the artists will begin painting in June and continue into the winter, Kirwin said. They will resume work the following spring and keep going until the piece is complete, probably by the end of 2008.
In the meantime, Kirwin and Erney are busy researching and painting the detailed mock-ups that will guide their work, which they say will breathe life into Washington's storied past.
Sitting in his studio off Duke Street last week, Kirwin talked excitedly about the project -- about the reenactors he plans to photograph to make the art as realistic as possible, the historical advisers brought in to critique the painted storyboards, and his new-found appreciation for Washington.
"Here's what's shocking," Kirwin said. "People are into George Washington! I thought this was such a dry, boring thing. But there are twists and turns to his life, all these things that most of us never knew."
As he studied a mock-up he had recently completed of George and Martha Washington standing before Gadsby's Tavern, he noted how everything has significance, right down to the folds of Martha's dress and the chickens ambling along the dirt road.
"We're showing how people lived," he said.
Kirwin said supplies will cost at least $35,000, mostly for paint. The artists have also budgeted for a special ultraviolet varnish that they will use to coat their finished work -- a varnish that can be removed, along with graffiti if need be, without damaging the underlying images.
Kirwin said he is ready for anything, including a renewed campaign to stop the project.
"I think [the city] will do something to try to stop it," Kirwin said. "We have the legal right, but I'm scared."
But Mayor William D. Euille said there are issues facing the city that are considerably bigger than the mural. "It's not a major concern," Euille said. "If there are no permits required by the city, then God bless them."
That probably comes as good news to the mural's supporters.
Some, including George Seghers, executive director of the George Washington Masonic Memorial, a towering 333-foot tribute, are sympathetic to the project.
"If they want to make a nice mural and include an image of the memorial, I don't see any reason why we shouldn't participate," Seghers said.
Jo Anne Mitchell, president and chief executive of the Alexandria Convention and Visitors Bureau, is also giving the project a thumbs up, though her group's board has not taken a position.
Others, including officials at the Carlyle House, acknowledged, albeit reluctantly, that they also are backing the project.
"They say they're going to represent us, no matter what," said curator James Bartlinski. "I'm not opposed to our image being used as long as it's portrayed accurately. So I guess you could say we are in support of the project."
And though the City Council does not appear to have authority to stop the project, Macdonald has a plan, of sorts.
"If they put up the mural, I think we should put up a sign on city property where we describe why the plant is such a polluter and why we're unhappy with the things they're doing," Macdonald said. "This is not about liking art or not liking art. It's not about the mural."
