There are murals all over downtown Harrisonburg — two on North Liberty Street, two at Urban Exchange, two on Water Street, one on the corner of Magnolia, etc. — but there’s one modest piece of art that started it all, and this artist, who still lives here, started a major trend in Harrisonburg.
When James August Worthing Jr. saw a blank wall on the corner of Indian & American Cafe at Elizabeth and North Main streets in Harrisonburg, he knew he wanted to put something in there. His studio was on the corner at the time, so his training as a tattoo artist inspired him.
“The reason I did it is because I wanted people to know what kind of designs I could do. That’s why I did it,” he said.
In that sense he is a pioneer: in 2007 he painted a mural of a covered bridge in perspective: the idea was to create the illusion that one could enter the depicted space, like the Road Runner disappearing into a tunnel in the old cartoons.
“I thought it was really cool and the way it looked like he was leaning against the wall watching people enter the bridge,” he said.
This was Harrisonburg’s first mural.
“I came in first. Sims came in second.” this “It was the third,” he says as we walk downtown (more on Sims later). The “this” he’s referring to is a mural in a former flower shop that’s now MOD Display, across from Burger King on East Market Street.
And now he’s lost track of them all.
Worthing has lived in Harrisonburg for 35 years, and in his own way, he explains why the arts have exploded downtown.
“We’re short on artists, we need help to get people interested in what we do, and we have buildings around that need something,” he said.
This could be something that reflects a local theme rather than just a company logo, Worthing said.
“What we’re trying to create is for artists to leave their own legacy in these buildings. And it’s not easy to find artists who can do that. They have to go out and get on conveyors and scaffolding and stuff,” he said.
Worthing said there was a time when he wanted to paint a mural at the feed mill on the north edge of downtown, but in retrospect he realized he was asking too much: The building was too big, and it would have cost $200,000 to paint a mural, which would have taken people’s jobs away.
“So I decided to quit,” he said, “because they’re paying us artists to do it. I felt like that’s not a good thing to do. And let people make a living.”
Worthing is a tattoo artist by trade and is also qualified to train others as tattoo artists.
Returning to the Worthing mural, he painted it in 2007 and left it there for a few years. Then, as he recalls, he painted the Lucy Sims mural on Elizabeth Street. This was his second major mural. In 2011, he looked at the Covered Bridge mural and realised he was getting bored with it. He decided to start over.
He realized that when the school bus stopped at the traffic light on Elizabeth Street, the kids on the bus would see his mural, and he wanted to create something that would interest kids.
His colleague Greg Barrow came up with the idea, and they drew dinosaurs and even kids reading books while riding them as a way to show that kids can do anything.
At the time, the Veterans Hall, where the police station now stands, was across the street from the mural, and they thought his mural work was interesting.
“They were always looking at me. My grandchildren were drawing pictures of grass and frogs and things like that on the bottom wall,” he said.
The frog in the bottom left corner is sculpted out of clay and protruding from the wall. Unfortunately, the frog’s eyes, which were jewels set into the clay, are gone. Some of the jewels from the dinosaur’s eyes are still there.
The entire project took two months, Worthing said.
Now there’s art everywhere, and Worthing says it’s a good reflection of the city of Harrisonburg.
“The people of the city, the community, the council; [Harrisonburg Downtown] “The Renaissance Arts Council recognizes artists who are creating and working, and it’s about time,” he said. “Beautiful murals are coming up, and people are dedicating their time and their lives to creating them. … I’m really happy that it’s happening.”
His current project is a Japanese-style screen with daytime scenes on one side and nighttime scenes on the other, and you can probably see him working in the narrow hallway that runs from Court Square to his tattoo parlor, housed in a tight space at 30 South Main Street.
Worthing is considering selling all of his paintings from the past 50 years to save his house. A pipe burst in his studio, causing extensive flood damage. He saved his shop, but it has put him behind on his house payments. He is trying to catch up on his payments.
Another of his projects displayed in the shop is a giant stone designed to look like geode. It will be lit up at night and Worthing hopes it will be installed on a building somewhere.
Another project he is working on is building a 14-foot-tall granite monolith as the town’s entrance. The shop has a scale model of the building, decorated with the flags of various countries, each representing the country of origin of people who immigrated to Harrisonburg.
If more immigrants came from other countries and settled here, started businesses and enrolled their children in schools here, there would be room for more flags at the monument.
Worthing and his fellow veterans want to donate the monument to the town for free, and he’s working with the city to track down who owns the land the monument stands on.
On another note, his church gave the glass etchings to Pope John Paul II, from whom Worthing still receives letters of thanks.
“A pioneer? What do you think of a pioneer tattoo artist doing glass engraving on the Pope?” he said.
