For the last five hours, he's been scrubbing the grime off his 17-year-old mural, the 140-foot pencil on Henderson Street.

Brown is spending the week sprucing up the mural, located next to the Franklin Street post office and courthouse parking lot. The project is part of the Painted Walls Project, a new initiative to restore some of the town's two dozen murals. The project is co-sponsored by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, and the Town of Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission.

"It's nice that it's been woven into the fabric of the community," Brown, 53, said of the sharpened yellow pencil, which reads "IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD" in upside-down text. "I'm happy to do it because Chapel Hill is my hometown."

Jeffrey York, the new public arts administrator for the town of Chapel Hill, said the murals have been an important part of Chapel Hill's image.

"They're starting to get a little shabby looking, but we're trying to take care of it," he said. "The interest in the project shows that people care about the image and aesthetic look of the community."

In late 2007, the three organizations sponsoring the project began to raise awareness and money to restore the artworks. The preservation society received an outpouring of supportive comments from residents, which led to the the Painted Walls Project. It's still unclear which murals will be restored.

The preservation society's involvement shows how important the murals are to the community, York said.

"Murals have become part of the reason people come here," he said. "Chapel Hill has always been a leader and model of small communities, especially in how it thinks about incorporating art so it's not just an afterthought."

Brown, who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in art, has painted about 20 murals in the town in as many years. His first, the blue mural on the corner of Rosemary and Columbia Streets, was painted in 1989 and depicts a nighttime landscape.

The pencil on Henderson Street was painted in 1991. The reason for the upside down lettering, Brown explained, was both to avoid city sign regulations and to paint the pencil from the perspective of a left-hander, who would read the text upside down in his hand.

He said he doesn't like to name his murals, preferring to leave it up to others.

"It's for the community, and so, within a few months, people just sort of name it by osmosis," he said. "I can relinquish control, and I love that people can feel some ownership of it. That's what public art is all about."

Brown will start re-painting the pencil today and will continue through Friday, the day of the Painted Walls Project fundraiser at P.T.'s Old Fashioned Grille. Members of the community are invited to attend from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to watch Brown paint and meet York. P.T.'s Grille will donate part of Friday's sales to the project.