New Bedford Artist’s Murals Gaining Popularity Across the Country

By Candace Hammond
Contributing Writer New Bedford Standard-Times

Good news, sports fans — if you just can’t get enough of Fenway Park or wish you could live in the middle of Gillette Stadium, you can make that dream come true with help of New Bedford artist M-C Lamarre.
Lamarre, whose motto is “Have brushes will travel,” has set a lofty goal for herself: She aims to paint a Green Monster in every state of the country.
“So far I’ve painted Monsters or scoreboards in 13 states from Florida to Washington. Red Sox fans are like no other sports fans,” she says.
Thankfully, if you want Fenway’s signature feature painted in or on your house, you don’t need a 37-by-240-foot area — the dimensions of the real left-field wall — to have your own version. Lamarre scales her murals to fit the available space. She has painted the Monster on the side of a barn, in rec rooms and bedrooms, and she’s having a great time doing it. To date, she’s completed over 50 Fenway-inspired murals.
“I love to travel and meet new people, and doing this is a great way to make a living as an artist and do what I love,” she says.
Lamarre, who grew up in a family of eight children, says sports programs were always on the television, and all of the kids participated in sports, so she knows a thing or two about the Sox.
“I love Fenway Park, and I’m trying to get to all Major League ball parks in the country,” the muralist says. “Not many parks have Fenway’s history, though, and there’s something special about that park that makes people want to replicate it in their homes.”
Today on the New England Cable News show “New England Dream House,” you can see exactly what M-C Lamarre does and how she does it as the show profiles her painting a 37-foot-long Green Monster in the Chatham basement of Eddie and Marianne Lynch. The mural was created this past April.
“It took five days to complete it,” Lamarre says. “I could have probably done it in four, but with the film crew it took a bit longer because I had to accommodate them and what they wanted to capture. I was really surprised that someone had a basement that big — it was almost the length of the footprint of the foundation.”
A lot of thought and planning goes into how Lamarre creates each mural. She works closely with clients to personalize the project, tailoring it to the owners and their individual memories of Fenway Park.
“I give all my clients a form to fill out,” she says. “There’s often a lot of sentimentality involved in what they want on the scoreboard. Sometimes it’s the moment in a game when they got engaged or a memorable game they went to with their family.”
There is one game, however, that she’s re-created more than any other.
“I have done a half-dozen of the infamous July 24, 2004, game with A-Rod and Varitek,” Lamarre says. “That was the game that many believed was the turning of the tide in the Red Sox going all the way to win the World Series. It is by far my most requested game to paint.”
Lamarre has what she calls a “Monster Menu” that caters to many tastes and budgets.
“The murals are completely personalized and built to suit,” she says.
If you’re more of a Patriots’ fan, not to worry — the artist is happy to create something special for you, too.
One week ago, Lamarre designed a mural for 3-year-old Sean McLaughlin’s dream bedroom. His mom, Larissa McLaughlin of Fairhaven, had seen Lamarre’s work, but it wasn’t a Fenway scene she had in mind for Sean’s room. McLaughlin was thinking football.
“She gave us a Patriots logo, and totally brought the football field to life,” she says. “Sean loves it. He sleeps so well in it, and he feels so important. It’s not a typical little-kid room — it will grow with him.”
Lamarre customized the painting to accommodate the McLaughlins’ Cape-style home, angled, textured ceilings, walls and all.
“Some of the walls are like the bottom of a jersey, and the paint texture that was there make it look like real grass or turf. It’s great,” McLaughlin says. “The field goes from the 25 yard line to the end zone and it’s got all the yard lines, hash marks and the logo in the end zone. I’m so glad we did this. I wanted to do this as a gift for my son and husband for my son’s birthday and Father’s Day, because my husband, Brian, is such a great dad.”
Lamarre hopes to meet her goal of painting a Green Monster in every one of the 50 states within the next two years; she thinks there are more than enough fans out there to meet that goal.
“This is truly a quest for me,” she says. “Red Sox Nation reaches far beyond New England. It will happen.”
The muralist will participate in the Fifth Annual New Bedford Open Studios the first weekend in October. Visit www.newbedfordopenstudios.org for more information.
Visit the artist’s Web site at www.mclamarre.com.
September 20, 2009
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