Frenemy & Friends Fire Up Fair Haven

A sharp-eyed osprey peers over the edge of its densely woven nest of thick branches. A frog, dressed in patched coveralls and top hat, sits comfortably on a tree stump, reading to a school of attentive rainbow trout. Only the moon seems to have dozed off, its exhalations producing cottony-white night clouds with every breath.

These are some of the vignettes of animated plants and wildlife that have taken residence on the exterior walls of a previously faded and graffiti-marked industrial property adjacent the John S. Martinez Sea & Sky STEM Magnet K‑8 School in Fair Haven — thanks to the work of a globe-trotting muralist and illustrator who goes by the name Frenemy.

Frenemy, aka Kristopher Kotcher, was commissioned to do the project by Site Projects, a public art advocacy nonprofit that has been developing site-specific installations around New Haven for 19 years.

Frenemy’s mural fills two sides of a rectangular, 18,540-square foot building of many multi-paned windows that are now interspersed with the artist’s color-saturated, illustrated panels.

The movement of floating leaves, clouds, and swirling fireflies are some the motifs the artist uses to unify the composition’s elongated format.

Also included in the mural are several original Frenemy characters: Doodle Dog and Mochi, who set out on a trail of discovery through a maze of flora and fauna, guided by a rustic sign pointing the way to the Mill River Trail.

Tilting block letters at the top of the mural spell out the mural’s general theme, ​“Born to Explore,” a nod to Kimbop Was Born to Explore!, an illustrated book Frenemy published under his full name.

The Fair Haven mural is Frenemy’s most monumental work to date. It grew in scope after additional negotiations with the Snow family, the building’s owners, who had agreed to provide part of their building on Haven and Exchange Streets — which once housed the Connecticut Laminating Corporation — as a canvas for the piece. The building is now garnished with new installations of giant arborvitae shrubs at its James Street building entrance.

Kotcher, who was raised in Texas by way of Syracuse, N.Y., uses the moniker of Frenemy to distinguish his mural and street art from other artistic endeavors. The globe-trotting muralist and freelance illustrator has created works in Israel, Vietnam, Thailand, Spain, Hong Kong and many other countries and locales. He currently resides in Malaysia.

Throughout the two weeks of its creation, the mural drew smiles and praise as neighbors and passers-by observed his growing, colorful spectacle. As Frenemy sketched and painted, motorists slowed to offer their drive-by commentary, often with bursts of colorful expletives that can’t be repeated here, but always with a thumbs up. Some drivers offered more: small gifts of food, a serving of fresh-made tacos, hot coffee and cold beverages.

By the end, many neighbors were on a first-name basis with the artist, stopping to monitor progress and voice their support for a project that has transformed the streetscape.

Opposite the Exchange Street side of the mural is the back of John S. Martinez School, buffered by several hundred feet of a parking lot and school playgrounds. An enthusiastic sixth-grade teacher and science curriculum writer, Laura Carroll-Koch, who has been studying the watershed and biodiversity of the school environs with her classes, brought several classes to view the mural up close, to meet the artist and try their hand at aerosol painting. Carroll-Koch said the artist was ​“providing a visual demonstration of what we’re learning.”

Over the course of a single day and three classes, Frenemy made fast friends among elementary-school classes as each student (and teacher) was given the chance to learn the muralist’s techniques for applying paint: steady side-to-side movements for filling lined areas with color, and flowing movements to create the graceful outlines of images made only inches from the wall’s surfaces.

This past Saturday, at the end of the block, a newly created biodiversity pocket-park trail saw its first visitors during an event held by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and the Mill River Watershed Association. 

Frenemy and his mural were the last stop on a walking tour of the Mill River Trail with members of the Mill River Watershed Association and Save the Sound. The environmental organization had a well-stacked table of informational materials and sign-up sheets, surrounded by colorful, educational placards featuring some of the design motifs Frenemy created.

The placards tell the story of the newly unveiled ecological restoration project taken on by Save the Sound in conjunction with the City of New Haven to restore the low-lying area across the street from the new mural.The area had been subject to flooding and dumping; it now includes native plantings, native wildlife habitat, improved drainage and people-friendly infrastructure improvements. Martinez students and teachers learned firsthand about the importance of a well-balanced ecosystem and its components. Students and community members will help install native plant species, building on the rehabilitation of a natural ecosystem.

On Saturday Frenemy explained that his mural contains elements of native plant species and creatures, images of which were sent to him by Save the Sound for inclusion in the project.

A special, unpainted panel prepared for the mural tour served as both demonstration and participation opportunity to paint, as Frenemy invited tour members to experience spray painting under his guidance. People of all ages were eager to give it a try. Some, delighted by their first exposure, stepped up for seconds.

As dusk fell on an overcast Sunday afternoon, Frenemy used a motorized power lift to reach areas of the mural that needed last minute touch-ups, and to indulge final bursts of inspiration even as cans emptied and critical colors were expended. One thing that was not in short supply: Frenemy’s enthusiasm for a project meant to enhance a community, and a community that in turn, embraced him, and the colorful characters of his creation.

“The world can be an awful place, and with my art, I hope to give people a place to escape to for just a minute. If I have accomplished that, that’s enough for me,” Frenemy noted in a postscript to the project on social media.

As if to place an exclamation mark on the rehabilitation momentum sweeping the urban mural site’s corner, New Haven Fire Property Maintenance Division worker Mike Ingassia showed up Monday to put a gleaming coat of brilliant yellow paint on the corner’s fire hydrant — a beacon of renewal where public art, education, and ecology have merged.