A Celebration of Life

When a small Oklahoma town like Mine pulls together to memorialize it’s memories and history in a mural, ask yourself why. As the artist painting this mural, I failed to do that. I only came to discover why by actually going through the experience of it.

I guess you would just have to see the mural to better relate to what I am getting at. Of all the murals I ever painted, none can compare to the one I am about to complete just in time to greet it’s 25th Old Timer’s Day. Besides the usual landmark notations, there are portraits, lots of them (over 30 so far) adorning the 4 walls. Never have I painted so many portraits in one mural. Never before have I completely encircled a building with a mural, and I have been doing this mural thing for a while. In many respects, the mural is quite unique. But so are the citizens of Monroe.

Reflecting back on my time spent on this project, one thing stands out more than any other. Aside from the usual spills of paint or cleaning of brushes, the answer to why this project came to be now stands out. I don’t know why I didn’t catch on to this before; why the citizens of a small town would preserve as much of it’s history in this way has become clear, now that we are approaching the finishing touch. If I may be blessed with having the same passion painting the last portrait as I did the first one, I can safely suggest that the title of this work should be just what it was destined to be, long before I came to figure it out: A Celebration of Life.