Painting the towns
Local and area muralists put their colorful art out there for all to enjoy,
TEXARKANA — Even though the living is easy and the summertime sizzle is upon us, that doesn’t mean local muralists are taking a vacation from their creative work.
Darlene Taylor, Jes Weiner and David Freeman are three muralists whose collective artistic touch has been beautifying Texarkana over the past couple of years, and all three have projects that keep them busy with the brush, whether it’s for public murals or similar colorscapes.
For Taylor, a big chunk of her summer has been devoted to driving up to De Queen, Arkansas, where she’s worked on several mural projects after completing a “Welcome to De Queen” mural this spring.
Taylor’s De Queen projects include a strip mall wall near a Chinese buffet, imagery including everything from koi fish to butterflies, umbrellas to hearts, a chair and crown to stylized “DQ” lettering. There’s a leopard, too, for a town where that’s the high school mascot.
Taylor painted much of an alleyway near De Queen Medical Equipment downtown — “seven murals on that wall,” she said.
As is the case with many of Taylor’s murals, there’s personal significance to alleyway images, plus a chance to be interactive, such as a girl in the bathtub with bubbles. A big magnolia flower blooms, while next to that is a pin-up girl with an umbrella (styled after a friend).
“Of course in all of my murals there’s something hidden,” Taylor said. Look inside the pink drain coming out of the wall for an arachnid invader. “It’s like ‘itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout,’” Taylor said.
A bakery and cafe are painted nearby in the alley, each referring to her friends, such as Cathy Brown Smith (aka the baker Baby Granny) and Taylor’s friend Jennifer Tanner, whose daughter wants a cafe when she grows up. Cats and dogs are modeled on friends’ pets, such as a puppy named Biscuit.
“If you go up close to these murals, there is so much detail,” Taylor said, adding, Look inside the windows for more.
An apartment pictured is called “Chez Leopards,” another reference to the high school’s mascot. A garden hose, butterflies, ladybugs, snails and more all make mural appearances. Features like cracks already in the wall are somehow incorporated. Then there’s a large, rainbow butterfly, her favorite.
“Each one of those murals is about 20 to 30 feet long, and they’re 50 feet high,” Taylor said.
Other mural projects include the city’s swimming pool, interior of a grilled chicken restaurant (Pollo Asados Queretanos) and an exterior side wall at Ranch House Cafe. She’s been busy painting the town, and her positivity and smile even graced the radio and TV.
Jes Weiner’s most recent public mural here in Texarkana was the interactive “Texarkana” balloon mural on the side of The Beauty Barr near the Perot Theatre, and also near her other, massive and colorful “TXK” logo lettering mural. But recently she’s been painting a couple of residential murals.
“I’ve been getting into residential murals a little bit more,” Weiner said. Some have been up in Kansas City, where she divides her time, but also here.
“I did a Van Gogh-inspired mural for a client’s front door. It’s inspired by ‘Starry Night,’” Weiner said. His famous “Bedroom in Arles” is another inspiration with its depiction of wood grain.
“I’m trying to emulate that a little bit,” she explained. “It’s a really neat little entryway. It’s kind of whimsical.”
Another client also likes Van Gogh, but she wants something like the sunflowers the artist is famous for painting.
“We kind of combined that blue sky and kind of the swirliness that you see in ‘Starry Night,’ but it’s light blue clouds and then big sunflowers. They’re fun and they’re whimsical,” Weiner said. Emulating the great Dutch post-impressionist painter is fun.
One client is local potter Chris Thomas and then the other is Kimberly Flint, the muralist’s mother. She only has to please one person, the client, with residential murals.
“The thing that’s different is I do have a little bit more freedom in residential murals,” Weiner said.
But she loves working on her public projects. “I ride that high for the rest of the week. I have so much fun with them,” Weiner said. Downtown visitors can also find two of her murals in the Kress Gap. She has a small one up at Bringle Lake, and she’s been pleased to see the murals grow here in Texarkana, bringing value to the city.
“The people who live here are worth seeing beautiful things on the street,” she said. “I love murals because there’s no admission fee.”
Freeman’s mural work is right in the heart of Texarkana’s downtown on the side of TLC Burgers and Fries, among other local spots. It’s the Dr. Pepper mural. He also likes stylized, vintage painting projects, such as the auto art project he’s worked on recently with a 1947 Fruehauf Trailer and a circa-1950s Mack Truck.
For the Fruehauf, built
by a pioneering truck trailer company, he’s re-painting the original, large Alamo Express logo with silver lettering and black shadowing. The lettering will look old, as if it’s peeling, but also like an original part of the trailer.
“This is being done artistically to create an authentic look of natural patina and rust,” Freeman explained.
The Mack Truck is being repainted to have matching Alamo Express logos on both doors, also with a vintage appearance. The truck will also have a rusty, old look to it, just like the trailer.
He’s used primers, surface rust and faux-painting techniques to achieve this style. To create this transformation, he covered the chrome and everything shiny, the windshield, the wheels and more.
They spent time building the look, letting it evolve organically with texture and a stressed look, Freeman said.
“Basically, the owner has been in the trucking industry for a long time, several decades,” Freeman said about the project’s inspiration.
With the trailer and truck together, it feels like one whole unit, the artist said. “It looks nice,” said Freeman, who’s completed similar projects before, such as furniture finishing that lends an older, vintage appearance. He enjoys this aspect of making art, in addition to the traditional mural work.
“It’s an art form,” he said about making something look different with this antique look. That’s the challenge.
“Then to do it in a way that feels natural,” Freeman said. He’s booked for much of the year with projects in several cities, but another potential project may happen in Texarkana, too, involving several artists.
“The people who live here are worth seeing beautiful things on the street. I love murals because there’s no admission fee.”
—Jes Weiner