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Café Luna to add graffiti-style mural
4:00 am Jun 18 - by Mary Russell – buzz Writer
Formerly known as Café Luna and located in central Campustown, Luna’s current building in downtown Champaign offers more opportunity for artistic development. Luna has been in its new location a little more than a year, and co-owner Raquel Aikman already foresees additional changes to the restaurant, including painting a graffiti-style mural on a brick wall behind the restaurant. Just off Chestnut and University, Luna resides inside an old train station that parallels the train tracks.
The restaurant has an outdoor seating area in the back, adjacent to a little-known parking lot. Aikman wants to make the back area more appealing to customers with the new mural. Although Luna currently has the parking spots after 5 p.m., they have not put up any signs or advertised this fact. Aikman wants to wait until the artwork is on its way. “We’re trying to get this whole place cleaned up a little bit. This will be used for parking spaces day and night. With that, I’d like to take this wall right here and develop it more into an artistic wall,” Aikman explained.
Aikman decided on graffiti-style art for the wall after being inspired by the various graffiti she saw while traveling. “I lived in Brazil for a couple years, and I noticed a lot of really cool graffiti work with very vibrant colors and pictures,” she said. Aikman wants to work with the surrounding train landscape when developing the design of the wall, creating a more integrated space. “I’ve really been encouraged by trains that go by because they have a lot of graffiti on them. I don’t want only graffiti lettering, I want to see pictures too — kind of a mural,” Aikman said.
Aikman put out a search for artists on her Facebook page and has already heard from interested participants. Aikman will be supplying the spray paint and wall paint and hopes to be very involved in the process. “I used to be involved in art when I was younger, but now the food is my art. I would like to do some of the graffiti myself. I’ve never done any wall graffiti before,” Aikman said. She explained that the wall is large, and more than one artist will probably end up working on the mural.
The outdoor seating area is a far cry from the concrete constructed patios of typical outdoor spaces in restaurants. There is a distinct earthy feel that suggests the restaurant has worked with the natural trees and grasses that have been growing behind the building. Luna has added tables and peppered up the area with additional landscaping and flowers. By next spring, Aikman wants to extend the graffiti art beyond the parking lot. “Eventually, I want to continue it on into the outdoor seating area. There is a mural there that’s been there for years and is now covered in vines,” Aikman said.
In addition to the main restaurant area and the outdoor seating area, Luna has a back room that has been used for salsa dancing and private parties. Called the Star Lounge, Aikman’s next project is to turn the back room into a bar and tapas lounge. “Eventually, I’d like to do some very decorative graffiti-style art in here, get some better lighting and some more comfortable seating,” Aikman said.
A rather large, high-ceilinged hallway separates the main restaurant from the Star Lounge. The walls are currently adorned with artwork from three artists: Aikman’s mother, Luna employee Patrick Monaghan and local photographer Nick Mann. The painting of a woman is a permanent piece by Aikman’s mother, but the pieces by Monaghan and Mann are for sale. Monaghan’s collection of work centers on funky, cartoon-like creatures, many with detached limbs and skeletal features. Mann’s photography is a stark contrast, featuring stills of natural images including trees and parks.
Aikman hopes to add additional pieces of art to this front hallway, eventually covering the entire wall and carrying the general graffiti theme into the front of the restaurant. “This is something that I’d like to push more and more if people want to bring in their art. This is a large wall that could really be covered, which in a sense, to me, would come out like graffiti in that it would be kind of random,” Aikman said.
Luna’s general aesthetic is far-reaching, with a mix of classic and alternative décor. Aikman has embraced varied design forms, from a chic main dining room with gray-blue walls and miniature chandeliers to an underground-style backyard. Although Aikman explained that the mural on the outdoor wall will likely be completed in stages over the course of the summer, she hopes that artists can begin the mural once there are a few successive rain-free days.
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