Walldogs have a brush with history in second day of Northwest Mural Fest in TD
Volunteers Dale and Tamera Quinton of The Dalles work on the border around the Ben Snipes mural this morning, Aug. 25th. Dozens of artists or “Walldogs” have made the pilgrimage to The Dalles this year to turn downtown buildings into historical art.
Brian Papa, 48, of Seattle adds some yellow to the canvas for Ben Snipes. The Mural is on the building at 200 E. Third Street.
Sonny Franks, who is the lead artist for the Ben Snipes mural, directs a little traffic this morning.
Franks is from Atlanta and spent most of Monday outlining the mural on the building with the help of a projector during the evening hours to help trace shapes and lines.
Painters are hoping to be finished with murals by Saturday night, Aug. 27. But if it takes longer, Franks said he’ll get after it.
“This is a larger wall so it might be Sunday,” he said. “I’m here til Monday, so if that is what it takes, we’ll do it.” Frakes said when smaller murals are finished earlier other painters will jump to other murals to help out, however, there are only so many Walldogs a wall can take at one time. Space, not time, is the limiting factor.
“Everyone in The Dalles has been great, we ate at the Bargeway, Last Stop, and at the Clock Tower. All the meals have been incredible. The portions are so large. We had the chicken quesadilla at the Last Stop and we could only eat half of it. We had half of it left and a friend, Russell came in ad midnight and was hungry and he ate it.”
Support Local News
Available for Everyone; Funded by Readers
Volunteers Marilyn Urness and Sandy Haechrel fill the canvas on the Rose Building next to the Baldwin Saloon. This will be the Chinese Community Mural with an intense blue border and a vibrant red for the body of the work.
The Ice Man Cometh - Volunteers were out on quads today delivering ice and water to painters and volunteers as afternoon temperatures were expected to hit 100 Degrees Fahrenheit. Hoses were also on hand in the alley behind Sigman’s Flowers where children could be seen enjoying a misty cool down.
Sandy Cereghino works on the Eleanor Borg mural on the A-1 Tax building on Court Street. The mural was jammed with artists and sign painters working on the purples and blues.
Nina Hazen from Los Angeles stretches to fill a line with blue while artists above her work on the top half of the Borg Mural. Hazen said she and others were trade techs who work in sign painting.
Here’s a little Honey in the Horn - Tom Taux said he hopped a plane two days ago from Pensicola, Florida to make the trip out with business partner Aaron. The two are working on the H.L. Davis Mural. Davis, who resided in The Dalles won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Honey in the Horn in 1935. The former Davis home is at 420 E. 7th St., The Dalles.
Alan Smith and Lise Larsen work on the Rational Reverend Thomas Condon Mural in the alley south of Sigman’s Flowers. Condon was the father of Oregon Geology and is renowned for his work in the John Day Fossil Beds. Condon found seashells on the Crooked River and fossilized remains of camels and other animals along the John Day River. Small horses resembling zebras in some aspects were also found at the Hancock Mammal Quarry. Click here for the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center in Kimberly.
Bernadette Livor, 7, of Astoria helps Denae Manion of The Dalles with a mural that will be placed at Wonderworks Children’s Museum at 206 Madison Street. Bernadette’s grandfather, Noel Weber of Boise was working several blocks away on the mural at Sawyers Hardware.
