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Artists to honor Sen. John McCain with 'Maverick Mural' in Scottsdale

Three artists are trying to raise $20,000 to create a mural in Old Town that will feature John McCain and Arizona's five Cs.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A group of artists is fundraising to create a mural honoring Senator John McCain.

The artists said Tuesday, the 4,000 square-foot blank canvas was an opportunity to inspire conversation while honoring our state and one of our iconic leaders.

Artist, Aaron Bass, principal of Chen and Suchart Studio, along with Tommy Suchart and the developer and project owner, Eric Marvin, all explained why McCain was just the right Arizona icon to be the subject of their piece.

“He’s not perfect. He’s like you and I. He’s made mistakes, but we all do, so he seems like the, kind of the right character, because of those things and he’s got this kind of grit about him that we can all kind of connect with,” Bass said.

Marvin described the senator as, “not a polarizing figure, somebody who is willing to straddle the line.”

Suchart said it was right to honor someone “who has given his life to serve the public good.”

The Maverick Mural won’t be a cheap endeavor, so the group turned to Kickstarter to fundraise a minimum of $20,000. It already has more than $9,000 funded. They hoped to surpass the goal to “create other large-scale, public art projects.”

Bass said the project would use a challenging, one-of-a-kind method, involving computational design, nearly 200 stencils and a lot of spray paint.

Those stencils will be used to create 30,000 icons representing Arizona’s five Cs-cattle, copper, citrus, climate, & cotton.

“It’s this choreography of the stencils and the organization of all the icons and the information, being able to translate that from the computer to the wall,” Bass said.

The artists plan to create the mural on a building on Marshall Way between 5th and 3rd avenues in Old Town.

“An opportunity to say something about this particular area of Old Town Scottsdale, that in the sort of general scheme of the entire metropolitan city is very different in its environment than anywhere else,” Suchart said.

The creators said they hope their art is not only a dedication to Sen. McCain and his family, but that it will bring people together at a time when our country is divided.

“This is going to speak to people on so many levels. It’s aesthetically pleasing, but it also creates a space to have a dialogue around what is happening in this country and that’s amazing,” Marvin said.

Cindy McCain tweeted about the art saying, “This is so special.”

Once the funds are there, the artists will spend about a week installing the project.

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