For the last year or so, I've been dying to do a big mural. Not that I don't love my small and medium murals. In the wild world of public art, everyone seems to want giant, building sized works and it's hard to get selected for those kinds of jobs when you don't have the resume to do so.
I never had any doubts that I could complete larger projects, and this year, I finally got a shot.
At the Fairgrounds in Elko
I was super excited when I was selected to paint a wall at the Elko County Fairgrounds. Sure, the surface was terrible and the existing paint was peeling, but I was ready to take on the massive 314 foot long wall. I started with fair animals, like horses and cows before moving on to some of the wildlife in the Elko area. The idea was to capture a lot of what Elko has to offer.
The Water Section Underway
Turns out, painting a 314 foot wall takes longer than you think. With just me, myself and my three inch brush, I spent five weekends working on the mural. I had to prime, paint and seal every foot. The surface was so bad in some places it was coming out in chunks while I tried to paint. By the end I was calling it Satan's Retaining Wall.
The Ruby Mountain Section
But in the end, perseverance came through. The public was great the entire time, honking and stopping to chat while I worked. Thankfully, cinderblock doesn't hold heat well, so while I was baking on the sidewalk, the surface stayed cool enough to paint even during the heat of the day.
Coyote Detail
The Elko County Fair is coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm excited to see what people think of the completed project. I wasn't quite sure when I started how I was going to tie the whole thing together, but for me that's part of what makes art fun. I love not having a plan and figuring it out as I go.
Welcome to Elko
Looking forward to some more giant murals in my future. My next wish is to work on one that I can get into a single picture. I used about 14 gallons of paint and primer and the mural contains about 30 different colors.
Fairground Animal Section