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Niagara Falls artist Rob Lynch paints a 10-foot fiber glass Gibson guitar that will be used in place of the traditional ball to ring in the new year during the Niagara Falls Hard Rock's New Year's Eve celebration in Old Falls Street’s west mall area. Lynch was commissioned to design the previously all-white Gibson guitar. DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
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The scaffolding is in place on Old Falls Street’s west mall area in preparation for the Niagara Falls Hard Rock's New Year's Eve party, during which a 10-foot fiber glass Gibson guitar will descend from 80 feet in the air to ring in the New Year. Niagara Falls is one of only three cities doing the “guitar drop.” DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
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A detailed photo of the 10-foot fiber glass Gibson guitar Niagara Falls artist Rob Lynch painted. The Niagara Rapids waves were done using metallic blue, green and silver paint. DAN CAPPELLAZZO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPH
NIAGARA FALLS: Local artist nabs a Rockin’ gig
Rob Lynch putting finishing touches on 10-foot guitar that will ring in 2010
Rob Lynch jokes that the first time he laid eyes on the 10-foot guitar it looked like a big white monster or, as a friend called it, a giant piece of brie cheese.
“I felt a little bit like an ant,” the 35-year-old Niagara Falls artist and musician laughed.
Commissioned by the Niagara Falls Hard Rock Cafe, Lynch had the task of transforming the 80-pound, all-white fiber glass Gibson guitar into a colorful piece of history that will help the city ring in 2010. In his hands, the “monster’s” base has been covered with metallic blue waves representing the Niagara rapids — and though Lynch still has some finishing touches to make, his work is already garnering rave reviews.
“It looks awesome,” said Sue Swiatkowski, sales and marketing manager for the Niagara Falls Hard Rock. “The waves make it so much more Niagara Falls.”
The newly designed guitar will descend 80 feet from a custom-made scaffolding system during the final minute of 2009 as the highlight of a New Year’s Eve celebration downtown sponsored by the Hard Rock and City of Niagara Falls.
Officials are hoping around 5,000 revelers attend the “guitar drop” — a number that weighed on Lynch’s mind as he began painting the guitar last week in his Chilton Avenue home.
“I thought it was a pretty interesting opportunity,” he said. “I wanted it to be eye-catching but something you could look at from a distance.”
Lynch, an art teacher at Niagara Falls High School, said his design was inspired by his jogs through Goat Island. The effect was created using light and dark shades of metallic blue, green and silver and incorporating the waves of the falls was “a no-brainer,” he added.
Choosing Lynch as the artist to design the Gibson guitar was also an easy one, Swiatkowski said. The two went to high school together and Swiatkowski has some of Lynch’s artwork on display in her office.
“He is an amazing artist,” she said.
Niagara Falls will join Nashville and Memphis as the only locations in the world to do a Hard Rock New Year’s Eve guitar drop this year. It was done for the first time in Memphis to ring in 2009.
The Niagara Falls Hard Rock received a $50,000 allocation from the city to put on the New Year’s eve celebration, which will be held from 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the west pedestrian mall area downtown and also feature outdoor concerts, food and drinks and other activities.
“We are hoping the guitar drop can become an annual tradition,” Swiatkowski said.
Once Lynch finishes up, the guitar will be shipped out to a local electrician, who will add lights to it, including the year “2010.” The finished guitar will be welded to the scaffold next week and test runs of the drop will take place Dec. 30.
Though he’s excited his artwork will help ring in the new year, Lynch won’t be able to see it first-hand. A musician as well as an artist, he is booked to play at a show in Ellicottville on New Year’s Eve.
“Don’t worry, I am sure someone will be putting it on YouTube,” Swiatkowski told him.
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