Once you drive -- or walk -- past them, you're likely to remember them.
Dan Halprin has created wildly colored, bold murals on the front and sides of the Kukurukoo Express Mexican Style Rotisserie Chicken restaurant on Market Street in Newport.
"I've been interested in making art since as long as I remember," Halprin said.
"When I was a little kid, I used to draw and draw until I got a headache from hunger, hours on end. I didn't want to do anything but draw, not even read, words were the enemy of visual art."
Then he found cartoons, he said, "and fell in love with words and art.
" Accordingly, he did mostly cartoons early on.
"Then I went to an exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art when I was about 10 years old and saw the work of famous Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera. His work showed public conscience, the history of Mexican people, for example.
"
Halprin relied on the two influences to form his own artistic aspirations.
"I always wanted to make art and make the world a better place. I wanted both, including social commentary.
"
In fact, cartooning plays a role in Halprin's murals. The cartoon aspect can show up either as stylized figures or be part of the social commentary.
"[In cartooning] you can deal with political issues from your point of view," he said.
He began his mural career in Georgia when he was a volunteer for Americorps. It started with a phone call in 1996, he said, when he was asked to do murals at a high school that would encourage kids to stay in school.
"Then [I did] a big one at a middle school with Martin Luther King in Washington and a multi-race playground.
The school was next to a crack house and a graveyard, surrounded by death," Halprin said.
He described the work: "It felt like rock and roll music -- bold, public, equal; it wasn't elitist."
After a couple of more murals in Georgia, Halprin made his way back to Delaware and then a bagel shop on Main Street in Newark.
Owner Alvaro Rusinque wanted Halprin to create a mural there. Differently dressed blue hens (cartoony, of course), a professor, punk rocker, sorority girl and mascot YoUDee decorate the shop.
Alvaro's brother Uriel Rusinque, owner of Kukurukoo Express, saw Halprin's handiwork and that was that.
"I saw his other mural, " Uriel recalled.
Halprin was mostly free to do as he pleased with the restaurant art.
"He wanted words -- like the names of the restaurant and food and drinks -- but other than that he said 'I trust you.
' "
Halprin gave Uriel sketches, and "I let him go; it was mostly his idea," Uriel said.
Halprin came up with scenes of different people -- Mexican mostly -- on the front of the building.
"I wanted to show people from the city and rural areas, rich and poor and people from different areas," he said.
"There's also a restaurant off in the distance and people walking toward it, a picture within a picture."
The sides of the establishment feature chickens, lots of chickens. There's the restaurant's yellow chicken mascot and cartoony chickens wearing jeans, cowboy boots ponchos or sombreros, and a female chicken with a dress.
Halprin did placement and size proportion by eye, including walking across the street to check out the work. Next came pencil sketching and, finally, painting with outdoor house paint.
"I generally use primary colors, then mix them.
I also used black and white."
He hasn't used a protective sealer yet but thinks he might.
The artist thinks the project took perhaps a couple of months, but he can't be certain because of his teaching job and spending time with his mother, Trudy.
Sadly, she died of cancer before Halprin completed the mural. She did come to the site early on, but later he relied on bringing her photos.
Uriel's reaction to Halprin's work is positive.
"Great," he said, "it's one thing I always wanted to do. It's very eye-catching, and everybody likes it." He is recommending Halprin to anyone who inquires.
Gabrielle Bradley is a fellow art teacher at Caravel Academy and the fine arts department chair. She watched the progress of the mural.
"The style is free and animated, and the colors are bright and lively.
He did exactly what he intended to do, show lifestyles and festivities. His work represents his attitude, fun to be around!"
Halprin's future is undecided, but both kinds of art are certain.
"I'd like to have a syndicated cartoon and do murals. I'd like to see a larger role for public art.
Keywords: Kukurukoo Express
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