On an Electric Box in Swampscott, an Artist’s Memorial May Soon Be a Memory
In the middle of the night, Noah Pierce walked over and placed his hand gently on an electric box in Swampscott’s Vinnin Square.
“Hi, Holly,’’ he said.
He was speaking to a switchbox, a big metal stub that sticks up from a sidewalk on Paradise Road. Ten years earlier, the box was covered in notes written in Sharpie, with flowers and stuffed animals tied to a telephone pole nearby. Candles were lit alongside it to mark “the last earthly site’’ of Pierce’s sister, Holly, who was 15 when she was struck and killed by a car right here in 2004.
The flowers and the notes faded with time, worn away by weather, but the site remained an important place for Pierce. His love had not faded, and he needed Holly to know that.
“I knew it was going to be a difficult thing to do: to face up to all that time eroding ink and memory—to apologize to her for not having done it sooner,’’ Pierce said. “[I] was in a mindset to confront some of these feelings, though. So 10 years after that night, I sat in front of the box from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and painted what I hoped would be a bold, vibrant, touching—and maybe a little sorrowful—piece of art that everyone could enjoy or at least acknowledge.’’
That September night, the eve of the 10th anniversary of her death, Pierce painted a tribute to his sister with influences from the Dia de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead, a Latin American celebration based on the idea that the dead would be insulted by mourning or sadness. Dia de los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. Pierce’s memorial shows a skeleton Holly with vibrant colors and the phrases “Hi, Holly!’’ and “Forever in our hearts.’’
The Day of the Dead motif also runs through an art show that Pierce and his parents, who are also artists, created an in honor of Holly this past September at the Stetson Gallery in Marblehead.
MoveOn Petitions
Pierce did not get permission from Swampscott to paint the memorial. And now Swampscott officials are looking to paint over the box, saying they’ve received numerous complaints, especially from caretakers of children who find the image frightening. Because the box is also on a state highway, the complaints have been forwarded to Mass DOT. Pierce said the image has been covered up with a metal plate, but is still there.
Pierce and his parents submitted a petition to Mass DOT officials with over 2,000 signatures to save Holly’s memorial.
“I’ve had people I don’t even know come up to me with tears in their eyes and thank me for doing it,’’ Pierce said.
Pierce even recalls interacting with a supportive police officer around 3 a.m. the night he painted the memorial.
“He said ‘looks good!’ out the window of his cruiser,’’ Pierce said. “I wish I had gotten his name, but I told him I was her older brother, and he told me he had been there that night that she died. We sort of nodded to that horrible nostalgia and that was it.’’
Michael Verseckes, a spokesman for Mass DOT, said that as a rule the department does not allow art on electric boxes.
“Once we do receive complaints, we do move to have that removed as soon as we can. In this case, because it is a sensative situation, we have come to an agreement with the family to not remove the mural until after the holiday,’’ Verseckes said. Dia de los Muertos ended on November 2, and Pierce’s art will be removed soon, but Verseckes said he is unsure whether a date has been decided on.
Pierce still feels strongly about his art, wishing his memorial could stay.
“[The box] should be allowed to continue as a touchstone for the incredible number of people who she touched during her brief time on this plane,’’ Pierce said.
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