Muralist spiced up the holidays
Walking around Wappingers Falls, Fran Farnorotto, owner of The Gift Hut in Cold Spring, noticed that vivid colors and characters covered many shop windows. She noted the Instagram handle in the corners and contacted Brian Zickafoose.
“I have a small space, but the art attracts eyes to the display inside,” says Farnorotto. Zickafoose’s murals also adorn Cold Spring Pizza and Bozerinos and, in Beacon, the Yankee Clipper Diner.
Window murals for Halloween are a staple for chambers of commerce, but the retail marketing season now runs from September to April, says Zickafoose, who moved to Wappingers Falls from West Virginia in 2018 to study with Alex and Allyson Grey at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors.
During this past holiday season, he completed 75 murals in Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester counties. As he works, pedestrians often stop and offer tips. “I’ve had people stand there for hours,” he says.
Along with his commercial work for his firm, Splash Art Mural and Window Painting, he creates personal pieces. One favorite genre is called psy-country: The psy is for psychedelic and the pieces feature brightly colored animals in hallucinogenic outdoor settings.
For his window murals, he attempts to incorporate the store’s vibe. At Cold Spring Pizza, a grooving gingerbread man holds a slice; at the Yankee Clipper, Santa hoists a mug of steaming coffee.
“Last Halloween, we had a melting pizza zombie,” says Angelo Broccoli, manning the counter at Cold Spring Pizza. “People stop and take pictures all the time.”
The Gift Hut specializes in vintage toys and games, so Farnorotto instructed Zickafoose to paint a cardinal perched on an oil-burning lamppost.
At the Yankee Clipper, co-owner Katina Pertesis has commissioned seasonal murals for 22 years. Last year, when the artist who did them decided to cut back, she called Zickafoose.
“I saw Brian’s work in Fishkill at my dog grooming place,” she says. “You start to notice it around a lot — he’s even at a few Dunkin’ Donuts.”
While the previous artist painted on the inside of the windows, Zickafoose paints on the outside. “Children used to pick at them” inside the restaurant, Pertesis says. “We had to clean up the paint chips, and she had to come back and touch things up.”
