When the finishing touches were completed on Easton’s newest mural this past week, it marked the end of a project that was two years in the making for Lisa Congdon.
Congdon, the artist behind the mural, was first approached by Greater Easton Development Partnership board member Bill Strickland about potentially coming to Easton to paint a mural before the COVID-19 pandemic. But plans for the summer of 2020 were put on hold, and were picked back up more recently with a whole new emotional meaning.
The mural, officially titled “We Gon Be Alright: A Tribute to Adé Hogue,” graces the wall on the Church Street side of the Easton Public Market. It’s the eighth piece of wall art from the Easton Murals Project, a collaboration between the GEDP and Brick + Mortar Gallery. It’s also the first step in a planned renovation of the back entrance to the market, which will be turned into a small plaza once the city’s North Fourth Street garage is complete, according to a release from the GEDP.
A new mural has been painted on a section of the backside of the Easton Public Market along on Church Street. The work is done by Lisa Congdon. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleyl
Adé Hogue was a successful artist and designer in his own right, plus a friend of Congdon’s through their work and shared love of biking, and over the two-year wait to get to work, Congdon invited Hogue to be involved in the mural project. They would each design a mural to be painted over Memorial Day Weekend to coincide with the Easton Twilight Criterium, which Hogue planned to race in.
But just days after doing some planning over a Zoom meeting last October with Strickland, who’s also rider-in-chief at Hearst’s Bicycling magazine, and GEDP Executive Director Jared Mast, Hogue died after being hit by a car while biking in Chicago, where he lived.
“This is a special mural for us in a lot of ways, one of which is that we got to help create the mural with Lisa,” Mast said in a statement. “But this mural also memorializes a cyclist who we had a connection to because he intended to come to Easton to paint a mural alongside Lisa, but then was tragically hit and killed. I hope that this mural helps to anchor the plaza with not only positivity and beauty, but also serves as a place of remembrance and appreciation of Ade’.”
A new mural has been painted on a section of the backside of the Easton Public Market along on Church Street. The work is done by Lisa Congdon. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleyl
When she sat down to actually draw up a design for the mural, Congdon knew that the best work she could do was to honor and remember her friend.
“I wanted to use this opportunity to pay tribute to my friend who I loved, and who died way too young,” she said over the phone on Friday from her home in Portland, Oregon. “I wanted the artwork to kind of reflect his sensibilities.”
The “We Gon Be Alright” in the center of the mural comes from the Kendrick Lamar song “Alright,” but it’s a phrase that Hogue echoed and used in his work during the pandemic — a time a lot of people needed reminding of that. Congdon pointed that out in a dedication in the bottom-left corner so that passers-by can learn about Hogue and discover his work. “I wanted to make sure people understood I wasn’t trying to riff off of Kendrick Lamar,” she said. “These are words that were important to somebody, and they’re also an important message for us.”
Congdon got permission from Hogue’s family and his foundation, which was started after he died, to use Hogue’s lettering style for the mural to posthumously incorporate his work, which she said made it feel like a collaboration between her and her late friend. Layered behind the words are bright, bold symbols and images that, to Congdon, echo Hogue’s life. Namely, the bicycle and the bird flying above it, as well as the rose, which was his favorite flower.
“These are all tributes to him and reflections on him in a certain way,” she said, “but also general symbols and that we all relate to and have relationships with.”
A new mural has been painted on a section of the backside of the Easton Public Market along on Church Street. The work is done by Lisa Congdon. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.comSaed Hindash | For lehighvalleyl
The overall design of the mural came pretty easily to Congdon, who said she normally toils over her work. When she sat down to sketch out the mural, it flowed out of her in just a couple of hours. “I feel like, in some ways, Adé must have been guiding me,” she said.
Work on the mural itself started on May 26 and wrapped up on a scorching May 30 that had Congdon and the volunteers who helped on the mural working in 90-degree heat.
The weather could’ve been a bit more of an obstacle, but when it rained on Saturday afternoon, Congdon had planned to take that time off anyway to participate in the Criterium’s community bike ride with a group in honor of Hogue, and then to watch the slate of races that her friend would have been competing in.
“Bicycling and art are powerful connectors between people, and expressions of life, exuberance, and freedom — qualities Adé also epitomized,” Strickland said in the release. “Having Lisa’s mural in what will be one of the best public spaces in Easton will be a wonderful reminder to all of us to cherish life and each other.”
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Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com.
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