FORT SMITH (KFSM) -- A local man says he wants to make Fort Smith more lively and energetic, and he's helped make it possible for two international artists to paint a mural in town.
Two artists have made their way from across the world to Fort Smith for a few days for a special project at Boardertown Skate Shop and Park.
Conor Harrington and “Maser” are both from Ireland. The two have completed a mural together before, in London last year.
"Maser is more contemporary, bright colors, objects that represent, words that represent meaning to him and to the community. Conor is more of a fine artist for a street artist, and his images depict emotion," John McIntosh said.
The mural is part of a vision McIntosh has for the city.
He’s calling it “The Unexpected Project,” and he said there are plans to have other artists from around the nation and the globe come in to paint the town.
The goal is to paint several murals throughout the city during festival in downtown Fort Smith the week of September 6th.
"Downtown used to be a very vibrant downtown when I grew up, and then it went away. But downtown is really the heart and soul of the city. Anything that we can do to bring that back, where younger people want to live and work and play downtown -- that's really our mission," he said.
It is estimated 30 gallons of paint and 240 spray cans were used for the mural.
"I've been through so many cans at this stage I have no idea. It's definitely about a hundred odd cans or more,” Harrington said as he worked on the mural Saturday (March 7).
From the time they started Thursday (March 5) morning to the time it is complete, McIntosh said the pair will have spent about 85 hours at the wall.
“The week of the festival in September, we'll have an event every evening -- maybe two or three during the evening, and maybe two or three on the weekend. Live music, a CD release party, contemporary dance two or three days, skateboarders all around town doing tricks and performing,” McIntosh said. We’ve got a spoken word event. We're bringing in some different music that we haven't had around Fort Smith before.”