THE painting of the GrainCorp Sea Lake silos is well underway, and the artwork is already delivering on its promise to bring tourism to town.
Photos of the partially painted silos, posted to the Royal Hotel’s Facebook page, had reached tens of thousands of people by yesterday morning, with many already planning a visit to the Mallee town.
The hotel’s Allison McClelland posted the pictures, and told The Guardian she was “amazed” by the response.
“I just keep looking at how many people it has reached,” she said.
“I think they look amazing and when they are finished they are going to be amazing.
“They are (going to stand out) and you can see them from all the entry points into Sea Lake as you drive into town.”
A joint project of Buloke Shire Council and GrainCorp, the silo art was identified as one of the 13 to be funded through the $1 million federal government drought communities program.
Advance Sea Lake Inc vice chair Julie Pringle, who led the charge to see the project delivered and the town join the iconic silo art trail, also welcomed the progress.
“They are looking amazing,” she said.
“It is absolutely going to be amazing, I’m thrilled, it’s bringing hundreds of people already.”
The Zookeeper, one half of the two person team bringing the silos to life, told The Guardian the artists were between a week and a week-and-a-half away from finishing.
“I think we’re on day 14 now, so we have been pushing it pretty hard from both ends,” he said.
“It’s coming together nicely.”
The Zookeper said the community response to the artwork had been huge.
“Yeah, it’s been massive, the last few weeks there has been a steady increase of people coming into town and getting the residents really stoked,” he said.
“More people have been stopping, more people have been paying attention, we have had locals coming down, making lots of mates, it’s really showing the impact of the artwork.”
The Zookeeper said he and Drapl had been spending plenty of time at the local hotel, and had already had a few silo tour groups come through as well.
“We have had a chat to them about the process and how we’ve done it, there was some confusion as to how we get the scale of it right,” he said.
“So we had a chance to explain what the squiggles and the rough early stage markings were.”
This is not the first attempt at silo art for the pair, who have recently received a nomination for national recognition for their work.
“Yeah I’ve been involved in two other silo works, the first in 2017, with Drapl as well and that was our first taste of it,” The Zookeeper said.
“We just found out that one has been nominated for the national street art of the year award, we weren’t expecting anything like that to take off.”
The Zookeeper said in the early days of silo art they had “no idea what it would lead to”.
“It’s pretty surprising to see how much Australia has embraced having these massive silo artworks painted,” he said.
“It has allowed us to travel the country a heck of a lot more, rather than being stuck painting large walls in the city.
“We hope to do this pretty much constantly, really, to get to travel at the same time, it’s the dream.”
The Zookeeper also praised the town for welcoming the artists as they worked.
“Just a massive thank you to the community for embracing us and showing us a good time while we have been here, it just adds to the whole experience,” he said.
“The art works are one thing, but getting to know the people and what makes the town specials, that’s what makes us love the process.”
