The Muralists

A photo of the Inter-Urban Depot, now a shelter house at McColl Park in Woodward

Back in 1898, before most of us were even born, the Des Moines City Railway incorporated and became the Inter-Urban Railway.  It was tied in to the Des Moines street railway system and connected  some of the smaller rural communities to the city.  The Inter-Urban Trolley provided service to Woodward beginning in 1906 - also before we were born.  The Inter-Urban was the major form of transportation to the smaller rural communities in the area for several decades.  Service continued through the depression but ended in 1941 when improved roads and automobiles made it no longer necessary.
In 1951, five acres of land surrounding was given to the city for a park and the old depot, lovingly restored, serves as the shelter house.

If any of you are still with me after all that, you might be interested to know that my husband and I were commissioned to paint a mural of the trolley for the depot.  Not large as murals go, only 72 inches square, and we are able to do the work at home in our air conditioned studio. Instead of painting directly on the depot  wall, we are painting on a smooth wood panel which will be attached to  the wall when we are finished.  After looking at dozens of old photos of trolleys  my husband drew a sketch which we enlarged and projected onto the panel.  We had a couple of "false starts," designing and redesigning the thing as we went along  but finally came up with something that looks good  - at least to us - and is as accurate as we could make it.  Discovering all sorts of things as we go along. Like using blue painting tape to help us paint straight lines. Solves the endless cycle of painting - touching up - repainting...  Larry sits and studies train wheels until he sees them in his sleep. As far as the trolley itself goes, I know nothing and have no desire to know.  With the help of the blue tape, I can paint within the lines that Larry draws. But the background - landscape, skies, bushes, etc.  are mine. We like working together, although we do have somewhat different styles. It really bugs me, though, that when I work, the paint goes everywhere - on my clothes, on the floor, in my hair, on my face, on the dog  - while he could paint all day wearing his best clothes and they would still be clean enough to go out to dinner. Is that fair???

Today I began painting the train conductor, loosely based on a very old black and white photo. Loved the handlebar mustache, but did run into trouble with the hat.  The poor man looked more like a member of the French Foreign Legion  than he did an agent for the Des Moines Railway System.  Back to the drawing board!

I will not show you the whole thing until it is finished. Right now it is at its "ugly stage." In fact it has been pretty much at that stage all along, but I am confident it will look like something someday. Soon, I hope.  My husband likes to sneak up on me and take pictures of me working. It is a horrible thing to do to a poor, unsuspecting artist, but I am unable to defend myself against the relentless camera stalker.

I did find one relatively harmless photo. My hand only. working on the sky.

Hope you all have a happy Fourth of July holiday week end!  And please say a prayer for those brave men and women who serve to protect us and our freedoms.