Merrill’s Latest Mural

Tells The Story Of Nunnawauk Meadows

By Shannon Hicks

The community building at Nunnawauk Meadows is always a hub of activity for the senior living community near the center of town, but for a few months this year residents had something additional to look forward to: David Merrill and his latest project, which documented their home and some of the organizations in Newtown that helped get it off the ground 40 years ago.

Mr Merrill, a former Newtown resident, began work on the mural on January 5 and put the final touches on it just two weeks ago. While concerts, social activities, lectures, and health screenings were taking place, not to mention lunch being served daily, Mr Merrill spent his time filling the large space above the building’s fireplace with his intricate paintwork while also getting to know many of the people who call Nunnawauk Meadows home or their place of employment.

The mural measures about 25 feet wide by six feet tall. Including a border filled with additional images (a flagpole, the exterior of the community building, the State of Connecticut seal and symbols including The Charter Oak, mountain laurel and an American Robin, and the Capitol Building among them), it fills the space above the fireplace in the main room of the Nunnawauk Meadows Community Building, which is seven feet tall including its mantel.

“I’m here every day, and have been getting to know many of the residents,” the artist said while working on his project. “It’s been nice because they come in for programs or meals and they like to see the progress that’s been made since their last visit with me. It’s nice because it gives them something to watch in progress, something that’s developing every day.”

Rather than have representations of each season, Mr Merrill decided to give the mural a summer setting throughout.

“It will look like any time between June and August,” Mr Merrill said.

The dream of a housing project for the elderly started back in 1968, when many clergy and church members came to realize that Newtown was losing some of its longtime residents because there were no multiple housing facilities to meet the needs of the local elderly. By 1970, members of four churches became a dedicated group of nine who established the present nonprofit corporation known as Newtown Housing for the Elderly, Inc (NHE).

The mural therefore includes those four churches — Newtown Congregational, Newtown United Methodist, St Rose of Lima Roman Catholic, and Trinity Episcopal — with one in each of the mural’s four corners. The Congregational Church is represented by Newtown Meeting House, since it was that building that NCC was using as its worship location when Nunnawauk Meadows was both a dream and in its infancy. (The church has since moved into new quarters at 14 West Street.)

A gazebo and its surrounding gardens are the centerpiece of the painting. The mural also features Edmond Town Hall, the flagpole, and The Newtown Bee’s familiar red building on Church Hill Road.

A border has been painted onto the wall to surround the mural, and it includes a series of symbols and outlines of buildings.

At the center of the upper border is the year 1976, which was the year ground was broken for Nunnawauk Meadows.

“Before that it was a lot of meetings and discussions, but that was the start of actual physical work on the project,” Mr Merrill explained this week.

The lower border features the Nunnawauk Meadows sign at its center, with a dream catcher painted on either side of the sign.

“Good dreams come through, and it stops the bad spirits,” said Mr Merrill of his decision to include the Native American item, which also references the dreams of those behind the plan for the community. “Nunnawauk Meadows was named after the tribe that once inhabited that land, so it was important to represent them as well.”

On either side of the dream catchers, still within the painted border, are depictions of the Nunnawauk Meadows Community Buildings and a set of cottages, which are the residents’ homes.

The symbols in the lower left and upper right corners are matched, and they include the logos for Farmer’s Home Administration, the agency within the US Department of Agriculture that provided the 50-year mortgage for Nunnawauk Meadows.

The upper left and lower right corners honor the State of Connecticut, with items mentioned earlier (the state emblem, the Charter Oak, a robin, etc). Trees that are native to the state have also been placed within the border, as has Newtown’s Main Street flagpole.

The entire work is filled with the detailed, crisp painting for which Mr Merrill has become so celebrated. The amount of work that goes into his paintings belie the amount of time it takes for him to produce such monuments, whether they be the public murals found at Nunnawauk Meadows and the town halls in Newtown, Monroe and Southbury, or the private commissions that are often (thankfully) turned into prints that are so enjoyed by many collectors.

The stonework of Trinity church, its bell tower, even the shading of the stained glass window above and at either side of the Main Street church’s main entrance, which is in the mural’s lower right corner, is meticulous. The bricks and columns, and even the palladium windows, of Edmond Town Hall are equally defined, as are the bricks and shadowing on the façade of St Rose, which appears in the upper left corner of the mural — and therefore unlikely to be scrutinized by any human eye from floor level, yet the artist took the time to make them as crisp as everything else he creates.

The mural also contains a few surprises and hidden treasures. Mountain, the cat after which The Bee’s “Top of the Mountain” column was named, can be seen on the front step of The Bee’s building. A deer is to one side of the gazebo, a cement garden angel is within the gazebo’s garden, and a surprising transplant seems to be growing in the forest behind the outbuilding.

The artist’s sense of humor is also seen, with tribute paid to the Boston Red Sox in one location and the logo of Mr Merrill’s favorite baseball team appearing along with his signature in the lower right corner of the painting.

“I just enjoyed working there so much,” the artists said from his home this week. “I can’t begin to tell you, it was like going home many mornings. I made a lot of friends during this. I made some good friends.

“Nothing negative was ever said about the mural. They seem to like it very much, which helps,” he added with a laugh. “It was one of my best experiences, one of the very best.”

A formal dedication is being planned for June, when the public will be able to meet the artist, some of his new friends at Nunnawauk Meadows and of course view the new mural. Details will be posted once they are finalized.