The Muralists, Conclusion

Trolley, Waiting

72" x 72"

Acrylic

At last, we have reached the end of our journey. The trolley mural is finally finished. Many hours of research and work went into the painting of this trolley, which began operation in 1906.  I wrote more about the history of the depot and Inter-Urban trolley in The Muralists.  Even after the painting was finished,  it took a while for us to declare an end to all the picky details and get it out of the house and into its new home.  With the help of Russ and his pickup, Larry and I installed the mural in the Old Depot this morning. Russ, who came up with the brilliant idea in the first place, said the mural needed a name and came up with Trolley, Waiting.

New home of Trolley, Waiting, painting by Larry and Della Burgus

We chose the hottest day of the year to install the painting -  in a hundred year old building without air conditioning. That's planning, huh?  The actual temperature was in the nineties, but all the television weather forecasters continually warned us that "heat indexes would be in the 100 degrees"  By elven o'clock that heat index had reached 111.  And everybody was saying what they always say, "It isn't the heat, it is the humidity."

 Installation

  We made the mural a tad too large, on the theory that boards can be cut down, but they can't be stretched, so some alterations were necessary.  Fortunately Larry belongs to the school of "measure twice, cut once," so things went rather smoothly. Actually, he measured everything three or four times, just to be sure.  There would be no reattaching it once we cut it down.

 

Measure the wall

The mural would be mounted here, on the door where passengers left the depot to board the trolley.  A second door will slide in front of the mural to protect it when not in use.

Measure the mural

Trim it "just a hair."

Can we get it to fit?

 This takes concentration

 Larry installed the painting with small screws and nails.  He was so creative about incorporating them into the machinery hardware.  After he finished, I covered them with small dots of paint.

Tah-Dah!

  Dixie, Russ's wife, shot some pictures of Larry and me standing in front of the finished product and said it would be in the bulletin. Oh, goodie!  I hope they don't put it in the newspaper! I don't have a copy of any of the photos and probably wouldn't share them here if I did.  Me, with my baggy shorts, paint shirt and frizzy hair from the 90 plus temperatures. Since I took most of the photos for the blog, you won't find me in any of them.

Russ closes the door.

 I am happy it is over, relieved to get it out of my house and my studio. But it was a good experience and I am glad we did it. We always enjoy doing projects together and we each like to add our own special little touches.  The painting will serve as a reminder to some and an introduction to many others of a time long gone, before superhighways and airplanes.