Public Employee Press

NYPD muralist decks Metrotech with seasonal art

Each year, Police Communications Technician James O’Connell takes to heart the classic holiday song, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.”

When the Local 1549 member brings out his brushes and water-based paints, the hard-working, stressed-out dispatchers and operators know the holiday season has arrived. O’Connell brightens the spirits of co-workers by creating a festive tableau that covers glass partitions at 11 Metrotech Plaza, the 911 Call Center, with scenes of comic characters festooned in holiday garb.

The theme for 2007 was “the Grinch who stole Christmas.” O’Connell, with the assistance of his sons, Sean, 12, and Seamus, 5, decorated the walls with murals as he has done for the past 12 years at Metrotech and prior to that, when the Call Center was located at One Police Plaza.

Some of this year’s characters were Charlie Brown and a tree that needed some love, Winnie-the-Pooh, Mickey and Minnie Mouse in mittens and hats, and an enormous snow woman in a pink hat decorating a door.

“It gets people into the holiday spirit. They look up at these huge murals from their work stations on the first and second floors and it brightens their environment,” said O’Connell. “They love it!”

Art courses at John Jay College led to classes at the Art Students League and O’Connell’s lifelong passion for painting. He started drawing and developed a talent for calligraphy as a child. Now he watches as his sons develop their skill. For the past four years, Sean has added his own burgeoning talent to the project. “He has adjusted well to transferring a small-scale design to a large-scale space,” said his proud father.

After almost 20 years as a 911 dispatcher, the PCT uses his artistic talent to relieve the tension that comes with that high-pressure job. Creating public art for others to enjoy “lowers my blood pressure and relieves stress — for me and for everyone else who enjoys it,” O’Connell said.