TRENTON >> A historical depiction of people seeking justice in the capital city will soon be on display outside of the criminal courthouse.
Freeholders recently passed a resolution awarding a five-figure contract to a Clifton-based artist who will paint five murals to be permanently installed on the exterior of the Mercer County Criminal Courthouse.
County officials awarded the contract to Manhattan, New York, native Tim Gaydos, who will be paid $74,000 to complete the mural project by the summer of 2019. The Mercer County Improvement Authority budgeted for the public art project when the new county courthouse was constructed more than five years ago.
The 4×8-foot paintings will be installed in five wall niches that have remained empty ever since the new courthouse opened in 2013.
Officials received 23 proposals for the project from locals and other artists as far away as Brooklyn, NY. In the end, Gaydos won the contract largely because he has experience in fabricating art for display outdoors.
“These murals will be on aluminum with special paints, varnishes and anti-graffiti spray covering them,” Gaydos said in a phone conversation last week. “Anti-graffiti protection is important because the murals will be at street level where people can just drive or walk by them at all times of the day or night.”
Although Gaydos has been painting “since I was a kid,” he first learned how to fabricate sustainable outdoor art while submitting a proposal to produce murals for a light rail train station in Bayonne, which were installed in 2011.
Gaydos said he wasn’t really interested in outdoor art before that NJ Transit project was proposed, but he saw the request, researched what it would take to complete and applied, without worrying whether he would be able to fulfill the obligations.
“If you get an opportunity, you have to grab it,” said Gaydos, who is a full-time award-winning painter. “Of course, one might have some preoccupation about [something they’ve never done before], but you just have to bite the bullet and get it right. And that’s what happened.”
Those murals in Bayonne remain unscathed, despite the efforts of Hurricane Sandy.
“A lot of my paintings are acrylic, which is the kind of paint you need for outdoor art,” Gaydos said. “Standard indoor oil paint would not withstand the weather. And these murals will be painted on aluminum because canvas and plywood will not last either. I hope there’s not another Sandy, but you never know. Hopefully these will withstand anything nature throws at them. All of our traffic signs are basically painted on aluminum sheets and they withstand the weather.”
The budget Gaydos submitted with his proposal included a $10,000 artist’s fee for creative design and ideas, which he was in the process of completing when he spoke with this newspaper last week. Materials, including paint supplies and aluminum, cost approximately $4,500, according to the budget. Meanwhile, travel expenses, photography work and insurance cost approximately $3,500. The remaining $56,000 will pay for Gaydos’ labor to complete the project.
“Both of my parents were artists and of course they warned me that you’re not going to make a lot of money as an artist,” Gaydos said. “But that never really was important to me. The work is the most important thing. I always told my kid you have to enjoy your eight hours a day, otherwise you’re really wasting your life.”
Gaydos’ “seeking justice” concept will depict historical realities dating back to the early 1700s moving forward to present day. The five murals will feature the first buildings ever constructed in Trenton, as well as people such as Quakers, slaves and their masters, Native Americans, war troops, factory workers and modern immigrants, all of whom over the years have shaped today’s reality.
“All of these groups came looking for justice, which of course didn’t happen for quite a while, and still hasn’t come in many ways for some of them,” Gaydos said.