Roses are bursting out all over on bright-colored murals. Rosendale is living up to its Dutch name, Roosendaal — Rose Valley.
The “Roses for Rosendale”project sprouted in the mind of Lady Pink, aka Sandra Fabara, aka The Queen of Wall Art. A nine-year resident of Gardiner, Lady Pink was born 58 years ago in Ecuadorand raised in New York City. She went to the High School of Art and Design and became famous painting graffiti on subway trains and exhibiting in art galleries while still in high school. Today her paintings are in several prestigious museums, including the Whitney, the Met, the Brooklyn Museum and Boston’s Museum of Fine Art.
Invited to teach a mural workshop at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, Lady Pink wanted a way to demonstrate how murals can transform public spaces. So she printed flyers and knocked on doors, offering Rosendale businesses free murals in exchange for permission to paint their buildings’ blank walls. As she put it, “We’re doing a good deed to beautify a town and bring economic prosperity. It’s our artist super-power!”
Normally Lady Pink charges $13,000 to $15,000 to paint a full-size mural but she and her husband, graffiti artist Roger Smith, decided to fund this project on their own. They got a $1000 contribution from photographer Henry Chalfant, who has documented New York’s graffiti and hip hop scene for decades. Lady Pink donated her fee from the Women’s Studio Workshop and a restaurant chipped in $500.
Once a number of building owners agreed, Lady Pink put out a call for volunteers to her 42,000 followers on Instagram. Nationally known muralists, a retired art teacher, high school students and local artists responded. Professional muralists Jules Muck and Alice Mizrachi traveled from Venice, California and New York City. But If their sketches were good enough, amateurs were welcome too, including high school students Lady Pink knew from a project in Highland. Finally a team of some 35 volunteers was assembled.
Photographer Martha Cooper, who has been recording graffiti and street art for 40 years, drove up from New York City to snap the artists at work.
All the murals were to be finished during the last week of June. Store owners approved the designs for their buildings and soon, despite sweltering heat, spray cans and paintbrushes were at work from one end of Rosendale to the other. Fifteen murals sprang to life.
Muck, whose signature is Muckrock, painted three 20-foot red blooms on the rooftop of Fann’s Plaza, above the Dollar General on Rte. 32. Six painters worked at the Bottle Depot. Orange roses now adorn The Carpet Store. White blooms outlined in black are on Santa Fe’s side wall. There are also yellow, pink and blue roses. Finding them all is a fun Rosendale treasure hunt.
Don’t forget to look for the Ukrainian-themed mural one family painted on its store and Lady Pink’s two-story Mother Earth on the back of the Garden restaurant.
Despite the team spirit and creativity of “Roses for Rosendale,” several residents saw thorns among the petals. As Lady Pink put it, “When you’re succeeding, the haters come out of the woodwork.” Some wanted a painting showing the town’s history. And Lady Pink told us that three women artists were screamed at and threatened until the building owner defended them.
The Burger Bar’s co-owner Annie Demosthenes says she loves Lady Pink’s mural on her building. “It enhances the space and is a great place for people to take pictures and share their experience of Rosendale on social media.”
“The project was supposed to be roses and it turned to be other things. Skulls and snakes and other things,” Yuval Sterer, owner of the Big Cheese, told Hudson Valley One. “Some are beautiful and others are disgusting,” Some of the murals do depict more than roses. Two young people — Kira, a 17-year-old high school student, and Thistle, 18 — did include skulls in the mural they and others painted on the Bottle Depot. Thistle’s is reminiscent of Georgia O’Keeffe’s animal skull paintings. Kira’s has a Mexican, Day of the Dead vibe.
Lady Pink was happy to encourage Kira and Thistle’s youthful imaginations. She says she’s willing to paint over anything a landlord is unhappy with but there’s been no request yet.
Rosendale supervisor Jeanne Walsh has also heard mixed reactions to “Roses for Rosendale.” In an email, she told us, “Some people love it and some people don’t care for it. For those that are unhappy about it, I can only remind them that it is only paint.”
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