Matt Haffner recently unveiled his mural, Wolfmother, on August 16th as part of “Four Coats Neighborhood Mural Project,” a semi-annual mural project sponsored by the City of Atlanta. There was quite a turnout in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood at the Dark Horse Tavern where cold drinks and scrumptious appetizers were served up for the celebration and block party. Haffner, who has been working on Wolfmother since June, discusses the thought behind his latest mural:
“When I was working on the concept and drawings for this mural, I was thinking about the old folktale of Romulus and Rhemus and the wolf mother that nursed and raised them. I was also thinking about other folktales that involved witch-women who shape shift and move about the woods as wolves. All this started coming together into what is now ‘Wolf Mother (A Real Bitch)’. I have been interested in folktales and stories of gods and demons for years now. It has been great to be able to bring this interest to my large-scale installations. I knew that I wanted to work with a very graphic drawing style so the work might look a bit like the wheat-pastes I used to do. I also knew that I wanted to leave the brick raw on much of the wall and use the windows as elements in the work. This combination of existing aesthetics and drawn elements goes far back in my work to when I was doing graffiti and photographing them to make painting like black and white images.”
Be sure to stop by and experience Matt Haffner’s mural, which is located at the Dark Horse Tavern on the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Highland Avenue, along with the various murals around the city involved in the Four Coats Project. Fellow whitespace artist, Tommy Taylor, was last year’s city-supported Four Coats muralist. Check out his mural at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Austin Avenue.
Matt Haffner and daughter, Matilda, in front of "Wolfmother" *photo by Frank Sanchez
*Above photo by Alex Williams