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Email us at webinquiry@albanymural.com
Write us: 611 Western Avenue, Albany NY 12203
Phone us: (518) 438-4646
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AlbanyMural is a group of formally educated artists committed to the design and execution of enduring works of quality trompe l'oeil painting. Each work of art is created for a particular site and purpose. Its visual, cultural and architectural environments influence the design of each work.
Trompe l'oeil murals are different from other murals in that they seek to deceive the viewer, if only for a moment, into believing that a painted object is real. They require exacting skills and knowledge. The research component of AlbanyMural projects is as lengthy and labor intensive as the actual painting itself.
AlbanyMural uses the finest artist materials and tools. Each mural is meant to last for many, many years to come. Exterior murals are painted in Keim Mineral Systems products, which remain color fast and intact for more than 100 years. Interior murals are painted with Golden Artist Colors paints and products.
AlbanyMural incorporates educational internships and apprenticeships or student tours and field trips into each public artwork project. Partnerships with area schools, colleges and universities are valued and maintained to the benefit of both AlbanyMural and the schools' students and faculty.
AlbanyMural has been at work in New York State's Capital Region for six years. Our purpose is to enrich people's lives and environments by creating beautiful, engaging and interesting paintings. Trompe l'oeil painting enjoys universal appreciation. People of all ages, education and socioeconomic levels are drawn to trompe l'oeil painting's mystery and surprises.
Jan-Marie Spanard MFA, MBA, Ph.D.
Principal Artist
March 2002(back to top)
Jan-Marie Spanard, Founder & Principal Artist Jan-Marie Spanard is one of five children of Dr. Russell A. and Audrey Spanard of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Sewickley Academy in 1974. The next fifteen years of her life were happily spent as a college student. As an undergraduate she attended Ohio University (as a music performance major), Chatham College (with a dual major in music and art), Carnegie-Mellon University (art major), l'Universite d'Aix-Marseille (philosophy and art), and Rochester Institute of Technology (definitely art). Much to her parents' relief, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from R.I.T. in 1979.
In 1980 she entered Syracuse University Graduate School and stayed as a full-time graduate student until 1988. (In 1987, her seventh full-time year in graduate school, several faculty members determined that she was technically tenured as a graduate student.) With the generous help of numerous University assistantships, fellowships and doctoral internships, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1983, a Master of Business Administration in 1984, and, finally, a Ph.D. in Higher/Postsecondary Education (at which she now quite experienced) in 1991.
Bereft of future educational opportunities as a student, Dr. Spanard sat on the other side of the desk as a teacher and administrator at public and private, traditional and innovative colleges and universities from 1985 through 1999. In the Capital District she most recently served as the Executive Director of the Association of Boards of Trustees of Community Colleges of the State University of New York, Interim Dean for Business at Regents College, and as a principal in Higher Education Research, Evaluation & Management Projects.In 1996 Jan-Marie committed her energies to painting full-time. Her paintings consist of highly detailed trompe l'oeil work for individual and organizational clients. In 1999 she accepted a commission from the City of Albany, New York that allowed her to develop an apprenticeship program for young talented artists in the Capital District. This commission resulted in the 7,500 square foot trompe l'oeil Hudson Riverfront mural, and the smaller Excavate, in downtown Albany. AlbanyMural was born, and subsequently Founder & Principal Artist Jan-Marie Spanard's designs have been executed in the hallways of Guilderland's Westmere Elementary School, the facade of the Albany Public Library and, most recently, on thirty lamppost obelisks along the Hudson River Way pedestrian bridge.
While Jan-Marie is always active in the painting of her designs, a number of talented artists have made significant contributions in their execution. By project, they are:
Pedestrian Bridge - Koren Lazarou
Albany Public Library - Koren Lazarou, Jesse Matulis
Westmere Doors - Koren Lazarou, Phil Shaw, Brian Cirmo
Broadway Gateway - Koren Lazarou, Phil Shaw, Brian Cirmo, Robert Shane, Marsha Gregory, Laura Colomb
Excavate - Koren Lazarou, Phil Shaw, Brian Cirmo, Robert Shane, Marsha Gregory, Laura Colomb
(back to top) Published Articles About AlbanyMural & Our Artists
(in reverse chronological order)Span of History by Frances Ingraham Heins. Thanks to a series of historical paintings, crossing Albany's new Hudson River Way is a trip through time. (Times Union, Arts, Sunday, August 4, 2002).
Foolish Pleasures by Polly Sparling. Fooling the eye in downtown Albany. (Hudson Valley Magazine, August 2002, Vol. XXXI, No. 4, p. 71).
Painting with Passion and Perfection by Melissa Hale-Spencer. (The Altamont Enterprise, Volume 115, Number 43, Thursday, May 18, 2000, pp. 1, 16-17).
Vital Signs by Lynn Woods. You donít have to visit a museum to enjoy art in the Valley. In city squares and corporate courtyards, on Main Streets and buildings, art is all around us. (Hudson Valley Magazine, May 2000, Vol. XXIX, No.1, pp. 18-23).
'April Fools' in 'Cross Country' by Matthew Holm. Trompe líoeil painting on furniture showcased with photograph. (Country Living Magazine, April 2000, Vol. 23, No. 4, p. 25).
A City's Landscape: Resurrecting Albany's connection to the waterfront with a city-commissioned mural. In the closing year of a century in which the landscape of Albany has been defined by the construction of the Empire State Plaza and a myriad of highway interchanges, a local artist and her six apprentices from The College of Saint Rose created the first city-commissioned public mural to resurrect some of Albany's original connection to the waterfront. (Genesis: The Magazine of The College of Saint Rose, Winter 2000, Vol. XVI, No. 1, pp. 6-10.)
Albany Embarks on One of the Country's Largest Trompe L'oeil Murals (Albany Nights, January 2000, p. 23).
New Albany Library is One for the Books, by Elizabeth Benjamin. Patrons browsed for books and tapes among the sleek new shelves on the first floor. Upstairs, children got their first look at a detailed mural of a castle replete with fairy tale characters that was painted by artist Jan-Marie Spanard and her assistant Phil Shaw. (Times Union, Capital Region, Thursday, December 2, 1999, p. B1).
Library Prepares to Unveil New Look, by Elizabeth Benjamin. Artist Jan-Marie Spanard, who painted the Interstate 787-Broadway overpass trompe l'oeil mural, has also done two murals for the library one in the main entrance and another upstairs in the Childrenís Room. (Times Union, Capital Region, Saturday, November 27, 1999, p. B1).
Drab I-787 Overpass Becoming a Work of Art by Elizabeth Benjamin. Feature story on the Hudson Riverfront Mural at the Broadway/787 Overpass. (Times Union, Arts, Sunday, October 17, 1999, pp. I1, I10).
Creative Stroke Lights Up Underpass by Carol DeMare. News article on the development of the Hudson Riverfront Mural at the Broadway/787 Overpass. (Times Union, Capital Region, Thursday, September 30, 1999, p. B1).
Albanys Largest Public Mural by Ned Depew. Artist Jan-Marie Spanard and a crew of a half-dozen young local artists and art-students are creating a monument to the history of Albany and itís reliance on the Hudson River in order to educate and entertain visitors and natives alike with a 7,500 square foot trompe líoeil mural. (HomeStyle Magazine, Our Region, August 1999, pp. 33-36.)
Albany Embarks on Mural Project. Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings unveiled a project to paint a 7,500 square foot trompe líoeil mural on the Broadway/I-787 underpass, the only pedestrian link to the waterfront from downtown Albany. (Capital District Business Review (Albany) June 29, 1999, p. 1).
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