‘Dream project come true’: Rotorua’s Mark Noble completes eco-friendly mural

(From left): Rex Merrick (Advocate Print), Kaycie O'Connor (Rotorua Trust), Mark Noble (artist), Julie Parsons (Rotorua Museum) and Sheree Thompson (the Arts Village) stand in front of the completed mural. Photo / Andrew Warner

A Rotorua artist’s dream project has come true and is now completed, with a new mural adorning the side of the Advocate Print building.

Mark Noble recently worked with a team of youths over a six-week period to paint an eco-friendly mural called Our World.

He says the mural required more than 120 litres of paint and took the anticipated 30 days/240-plus hours of labour. Three youths joined him each week to help out with the mural, going along once a week and spending five hours on the project.

Mark says it feels great to have completed the mural, as it has achieved its intended purposes - to add beauty to the city, to give rangatahi a chance to learn new skills and to be Aotearoa’s largest-known eco-friendly mural.

He says it feels like a bit of a miracle, given the horrible summer weather, cyclones and recent rain fronts, that he got some good weather over the six weeks to be able to complete it.

“It also feels like a bit of a shock that the mural project actually happened - it’s a dream project come true.”

Mark had previously told the Rotorua Weekender that, from his research, there are no reported eco-friendly murals of this size.

“The wall itself is 30 metres by 12 metres, which equals 360 square metres of wall. What makes it eco-friendly is the paint - brand name Natural Paint Co, a Christchurch-based company.”

He says Natural Paint Co goes out of its way to find ethical and sustainable raw materials - titanium dioxide, calcium carbonate (chalk), mānuka oil, castor oil - which is how the company makes its paint.

Mark now says his first hope for the mural is that the wider community enjoys it, and then he would be stoked if anyone were to really pause and consider its main message, which has been written at the far end of the wall.

“Furthermore, if it changed anyone’s thoughts or behaviour for the positive (i.e. for Papatūānuku and mankind’s intrinsic relationship) about their consumer choices, then that would be a real blessing.”

He says people’s feedback has been extremely positive.

“No matter what age or background, people love it! On average, I would get 10 people a day saying how much they like it. I particularly enjoy hearing comments from elderly members of our community, as their appreciation and joy for the message of the mural really seems to resonate.”

Mark says there are a few highlights from this project.

“Firstly, painting a mural of this size - 480sq m, i.e., Aotearoa’s largest known eco-friendly mural - is a real highlight. It’s a lot of fun painting on this scale, as there is so much freedom to paint and you don’t have to be so critical of every centimetre.

“The children in the image are my family members, so it’s a real highlight to see my son and niece four stories high.”

Mark says one of the main challenges for him was painting the mountain range. It was only the second time in his life he had painted some form of a mountain, so doing it on this scale was a real learning curve.

He says a massive thanks to building owner Rex, the Arts Village, Creative Community Schemes, One Foundation and Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust.

“Without them, this project wouldn’t have happened”.