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Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
"Preschool," by New Paltz artist Roger Bisbing, an exhibit in the Albany County rail trail's new "MiniMoCA518" as seen on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
Artist Fernando Orellana completes his mural "Cathedral" on the Albany County rail trail, a work he painted on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 in Bethlehem.
BETHELEHM — Between mile markers 4 and 5 of the Albany County rail trail, a surprise awaits on the supports of the Cherry Avenue bridge - a virbrant mural painted by artist Fernando Orellana, an associate professor of visual arts at Union College.
On Friday, Orellana was finishing up the last touches on his work "Cathedral," which graces all eight concrete supports of the bridge. He and volunteers were able to project the images of his work on the columns, and then paint in the stencils with the aid of a hydrolic lift.
His second public mural, Orellana was able to do the work through various sponsors. He said during the weeks he was painting starting in August, he enjoyed meeting people who exercise daily on the trail - with one person bringing him cookies, and others picking up a paint brush and helping him fill in the images. "I'm now part of the community," Orellana said as he was about 20 feet high on the lift Friday completing his work.
Orellana's piece replaced a previous mural created by John DeMarco that was destroyed during bridge repairs.
"Cathedral" is one of a handful of other art works, the first being completed in 2017, that now grace the Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail, which stretches nine miles along the old Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Railroad between the Port of Albany and Voorheesville. The public art effort, called Art on the Rail Trail (ART), is supported by a volunteer committee of the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy.
ART also saw the recent addition of "a permanent, miniature art gallery" at the trail's intersection with Hudson Avenue and Adams Street called "MiniMoCA518" (sharing a similar name to contemporary art museum Mass MoCA).
The current work in the box of the Mini MoCA is called "Preschool," a piece by New Paltz artist Roger Bisbing that is a uniform grouping of tiny chairs and tables.
Lauren Stanforth works for the Times Union's investigations team. Her reporting career began at the Ithaca Journal in 1996, and moved on to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in 1998, where she worked until coming to the Times Union in 2007. You can reach her at lstanforth@timesunion.com.