The first mural project was a Walldog event held in Pontiac, Il during the last weekend in June of 2009. My friends Bill and Jane Diaz along with the City of Pontiac, planned and organized the "Chief City Runs with the Dogs" event. At this Walldog Meet, we were scheduled to paint 18 mural in a span of 4 days. I was asked to be a project leader for one of the murals to be painted during this event. For more on the Pontiac event, see link below...
www.letterville.com/meets/chiefcity/index.html
Early in 2009 I was given my mural subject and asked to develop a mural design concept for it. The subject matter for my mural was the Rodino Square service station and store. The Rodino Square was a popular stop along the original Route 66. It was a family owned and run business that was built up by selling vegetables door to door out of a Model T truck. I decided to work up something in an Art Nouveau style since that would have been in style near the time the family started the business. I worked up a concept for the mural and sent it down for approval. After a few minor changes, I went ahead and finished the final artwork.
All that was left to do was pack up all my supplies right before the event and head down to Pontiac. Those plans were nearly cancelled at the last minute. Days before I was to head to Pontiac, a tragedy struck our family. My Dad had an Aneurysm rupture and had to be airlifted in order to receive emergency surgery. He was only given a 50% chance of survival due to his age and the severity of the surgery. He did survive the surgery but had to be put into a medically induced coma for a week to heal after the surgery.
The week he was to be in the coma recovering was the same week I was scheduled to be painting the mural in Pontiac. During all this I notified those organizing the event and explained the situation to them. They were very supportive and told me that they could find someone to take over the mural project if need be. I spoke with family and friends and together we decided it might be better for me to carry on with the Walldog event as planned. One of my letterville.com friends recommended that I go to the event, paint the best mural I could and then dedicate it to my Dad.
With a heavy heart I did go to the Walldog Meet and followed my friend's advice. It was very comforting to be around a large group of friends who supported me during this difficult time. The main reason I decided to go to the event was that my Dad would have wanted me to be there instead of sitting around a hospital. It's hard to explain the level of Fellowship one experiences at a Walldog event. It's like no other gathering that I can think of!
Here is the Art Concept for the Rodino Square Mural....
While painting one of the Model T cars on this project an idea came to me as to how I could dedicate this mural to my Father. I remember my Dad telling me stories about some of the old cars he had when he was young. One of which looked quite similar to the one on the mural. I decided to paint my Dad's initials and birth year on the license plates of the Model T. That way it had a lot of meaning to me and didn't take away from the original concept.
The completed mural....
The next project is from the last Walldog event that I was involved with. This past summer I was asked to be a Project Leader for the Dog Gone Dandy event that was held in Danville, Il on August 4-7th, 2010. Originally the host and planners of the event asked if I would be interested in painting a mural honoring the celebrities that called Danville home. As plans developed, they eventually asked me to Lead the Balloon Classic project, which celebrated the large hot air balloon event that Danville hosted for many years. Bright colorful hot air balloons would be a great theme to work with, sign me up!
As soon as the project was presented to me, I had the idea that it would be nice to arrange a ride in a hot air balloon for "research" purposes! I started looking into local hot air balloon ride services, and found out that it would be about $900 for the three of us to go up. That would be myself, my significant other, and her 14 year old daughter. I went to work on the mural design and put the ride on the back burner.
I was given a rather huge wall for the Balloon mural and decided I better try and utilize as much of the space as I could. Then again I only have four days to complete the mural and have no idea how much help I would have? The wall I was to paint was a red brick corner of a parking ramp near the main street area of downtown Danville. It was about 29 feet wide and 40 feet tall. Here is the "canvas" I had to work with...
And here is the concept I presented to the organizers of the event....
We then commenced on the monumental task at hand.....
Soon after we started on the project a very nice lady named Wendy walked up and asked if we might be interested in taking a hot air balloon ride? Are you kidding....we'd love to!!! She explained that her friend was a local hot air balloon pilot and if the weather was decent they would take us up very early on Saturday morning. And she also wondered if her and her friend could help with the mural. I thought I had won the lottery or something!
The Friday night before our flight, the balloon pilot caught up with me and mentioned that her good friend was also going to take up his balloon so my fiance's daughter could go up in his balloon and well as one other person. Well, I'm here to say we were up the next morning and our host family drove us out to the launch site. The weather was looking good, we just had to wait for the light ground fog to burn off and we would be ready to load and go.
There was a big crew on hand so we were told to just take photos and enjoy ourselves. The whole process of a balloon launch was very interesting to watch. But the best part was the actual launch and ride......simply amazing!!!!
Many thanks go out to our pilot Donna Carlton-Vish and her husband Don for taking us on this incredible flight in her balloon...Sunny Side Up.
I also need to thank the crew that pitched in and helped complete the mural. We managed to squeeze in a hot balloon ride and complete this huge mural in just 3 and a half days. You might notice in the photo below that I decided to include the balloons that we took our ride in on the finished Balloon Classic Mural!
I am truly grateful that this mural theme came my way and decided I was the right person for the job....I can only imagine what might be up next?
