Damien Mitchell Mural At The Mill
Over the last twelve months, Tomkinson Group has been assisting with planning, project management, civil engineering and subdivision associated with the redevelopment of Castlemaine’s Old Woollen Mill site.
A highlight of this project has been observing the transformation of the site from an unused factory, to a progressive manufacturing hub with a strong sense of style, embracing and paying homage to its industrial heritage. A major contributor to this ethos is the up front and in-your-face mural of Australian-born New York-based artist, Damien Mitchell.
Raised in Wagga Wagga, Damien spent 8 years of his late teens and early twenties in Prague, but for the last 3 years has called New York home. Damien first dabbled with spray painting as a medium while working in a house paint store at 16. This provided him with a background in graffiti style works, honing his skills to become a renowned mural painter and street artist.
Similarly, the wall at the Woollen Mill had a graffiti background, some of which is still visible through the fabulous mural Damien was commissioned to undertake while home in Australia visiting family, including his Aunt Bernie and Uncle Steve in Castlemaine. He was also able to squeeze in murals in Broken Hill, Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula, before returning to New York.
The Woollen Mill industrial site is being reinvigorated as a food, arts and artisan manufacturing hub for Castlemaine, and now showcases Damien’s largest work of art in Australia. His overseas work includes everything from 7 story buildings, to walls as small as 1.8m – as small as he can go and still allow the complex detail he likes in his works.
The Woollen Mill portrait, visible through the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens, is a quirky, eye-catching piece depicting Damien’s friend’s flatmate. Damien feels it is important that people realise ‘this is not an ad’. Street art is often motivated by a preference on the part of the artist to communicate directly with the public, free from perceived confines of the formal art world in a gallery or exhibition space. As such Damien has been excited to be able to undertake murals on the many walls in his home country.
The Castlemaine Woollen Mill is not only reinvigorating the township, but providing a platform for a multitude of manufacturing and artistic uses that showcase diversity, creativity and vision. Tomkinson Group is delighted to be involved in this iconic project.
If you would like to see more work by Damien Mitchell, follow him at instagram: damien__mitchell or visit www.damienmitchell.com
