Safford — For Inktober this year, artist Brandt Woods is going bigger . . . much bigger.
With help from United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties and the Safford Downtown Association, Woods will be painting 31 murals in the Safford Downtown area during the months of October and November.
“So the way I’m swinging it — because, again, this is personal interest for me. At the end I’ll be able to say, ‘I did this and my art is going to be everywhere.’ — the way I’m justifying it to the city, is basically saying, ‘Hey, let’s make a landmark. Let’s make something that people can go see.’ And when they come through the Chamber for tourism, it’s like, ‘Hey, there’s also 31 murals, and you can walk up and down and do this art find.’ ”
Woods will actually get started on the first mural before October, using the Farmer’s Market and 9-1-1 Remembrance special events on Main Street on Sept. 11 to begin work on an Arizona sunset mural on the west-facing wall of the Ginaveve’s Market/Main Street Bean building.
A second mural that has been approved is birds on a wire on the west-facing wall of GCRC’s vocational training building.
Two murals Woods previously completed are in the Downtown area — the saguaro guitar on the north-facing wall of Richard’s Music, and the Made in the Gila Valley mural on the west-facing wall of Gila Valley Made. He also has murals in Safford High School.
Funding for the mural project is being provided by United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties, as well as building and business owners, with Safford Downtown Association acting as the project’s fiscal agent.
The Safford Downtown Association previously commissioned in 2019 the mural of a Downtown parade by artist Amy Novelli. It can be seen on the east-facing wall of Farmer’s Insurance.
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