Artist Projects Work Onto State Capitol Tarp

A local artist took to an unlikely canvas to send Oklahoma lawmakers a message.

He projected his work Monday night onto construction tarp at the state Capitol.

The first piece on display showed Woody Guthrie with a message on his guitar saying, "How did it come to this." 

"I ask myself that every day," said Jack Fowler, the mural artist behind the movement. "I look around at the new normal we're all subjected to and this system that supposedly represents us and we all know it doesn't."

Fowler said he thinks Guthrie would be "ashamed of us right now." 

In a tweet, Fowler asked Oklahomans to share their ideas for the next message to be displayed in the artwork, using the hashtag #WoodysGuitar. He received hundreds of responses.

The Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) released this statement Tuesday:

We appreciate the creativity and ingenuity displayed by local artists last night, but it’s important to note that projecting images onto the State Capitol is prohibited without the necessary permits.

As for specifically projecting an image onto the tarps covering scaffolding, such action is prohibited due to safety concerns. Restoration crews are working at night and light can seep through the tarp material causing a distraction. Such distractions, when working many feet above the ground, can be extremely hazardous.

We would ask that future plans to project images onto the tarp be abandoned out of respect for workers’ safety.

Again, we appreciate the creativity displayed last night, but to repeat such action could have significant consequences, cause safety issues for crews working at night and is prohibited.

After the sun set Tuesday night, Fowler worked to put his second piece up on display at the Capitol. It was supposed to be the first phrase selected from his Twitter plea.

"They've cut my power. So I'm either going to have to find another outlet or get a generator or something," he told News 9.

The outlets he used the night before for his first display were apparently dead.

In a tweet from later Tuesday evening, Fowler said:

News 9 reached out to the OMES late Tuesday night regarding the outlets, but did not receive a response in time for this report.