Salisbury selects artist for city mural project

The City of Salisbury selected artist Paul Boyd III to paint a community-themed mural at the corner of East Church Street and Route 13, Mayor Jake Day announced recently. 

Work on the mural is expected to take five weeks and after completion, the city will host a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, according to a news release. 

The mural will serve as a gateway to the Church Street neighborhood.  It will be accompanied by a way-finding sign which will celebrate notable architecture in the neighborhood, according to a news release. 

Boyd was chosen from a field of almost a dozen artists who submitted designs and work schedules for the project.

Based in Salisbury, Boyd’s design company, Seven Digits and Running (S’DAR) Studios, brings urban influence to portraiture, interior design and fashion. Boyd’s work can be found in homes and businesses around Salisbury and the office of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson in New York City, according to a news release. 

“When we met with residents of the Church Street neighborhood to ask what they wanted the mural to be, the answers we heard gave us two clear priorities for the subject matter: depict the history of the African-American community in Salisbury, and show us a road to the future. Paul’s design is exactly that. He nailed it,” Day said in a news release.

Boyd’s submission depicts five prominent figures: World War I hero and recipient of the American Distinguished Service Cross and French Croix de Guerre Sgt. William Butler;  Respected educator and principal of Salisbury Industrial High School Charles P. Chipman; beloved Salisbury High School teacher Elaine Brown; mortician to Salisbury’s African-American community James Stewart; and Dr. G. Herbert Sembly, who practiced medicine in Salisbury for over 60 years, according to a news release. 

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In addition to the faces of the esteemed figures which line the top of the mural, children are depicted in the foreground, playing and preparing for school. A train bisects the mural, indicating the passage of time. Two passengers await their turn to become guiding influences for future generations, and a family holds hands as they face the future, according to a news release.

“Paul Boyd is helping Salisbury accomplish something for the residents and businesses of the Church Street neighborhood that they have long deserved," Day said in a news release. 

"We have eliminated a blighted property on an easily-ignored corner and replaced it with an attractive sign, a landscaped plaza, a beautiful gateway and a stunning piece of art that celebrates the neighborhood’s history.

"This neighborhood has been too often ignored, too little cared for, and too easily ripped apart by the highways that cut through it. It is high time we started to find ways to help those wounds heal." 

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